COLOR!

Yes...color...I sometimes get lucky with color...thought I'd share some of my favorites:

A Study in More Than One Purple

This little guy exhibited in the spring of 2004 and won Best of Show at the Syracuse University On My Own Time exhibition, and then went on to exhibit at the Everson Museum for the Cultural Resources Council version of the On My Own Time exhibition. It was a nifty little whim that led me to make this tiny painting, it's probably only 5 x 6 inches or so, not very big, but the color is WOW.
It's watercolor (with touches of Chinese White) on a scrap of BFK Rives paper that a printmaker gave to me one day ages ago, I have a stash of these scraps, and now and then I dig into the stash when I have something special in mind...there's something just delightful about the texture of really good paper that makes making art so much fun...I always recommend spending the extra money to get the good stuff just because it makes a difference in how the watercolor flows...and squishes around...yeah...it really rocks.




This blue one was Purple's "mate" in the same exhibition (but didn't get "invited" to participate at the Everson)... Water and Sky, after I made it there was some debate about which way was up, initially, I painted it vertically, but the little "splash" in the lower left corner liked being the lower left corner, so I couldn't argue with it...





Here's an oldie but goodie that I just pulled out of storage, a little bit from some inspired splashing I did back in 1995...it really is sad that these haven't seen the light of day in years...but then again, they're preserved and safe...and for now, they're just for me to do as I please...


Note the ragged edges, I used one of my little scraps from the stash (I've had this stash of paper for a very long time)...

Frost is watercolor, Chinese White, and salt...I just dashed this off without a care, sometimes the best things come when I'm not being self-conscious about the outcome...gotta love it!


Let's see what else I've got in here...












Oh...I miss this one, it was sold at the Delavan Art Gallery last fall, I'm so glad I got a picture of it before it left!

This is one of my rare reds...I really don't do well with red, it's not a "Laura color", but this little scrap of paper (about 4 x 4 inches I think) required it to be "seen" so I gave it a bright wash and then splashed my favorite blue in it, and then did a little scratching around with a colored pencil to pick out a few details...








Speaking of scraps...mat board scraps from cut windows are great to play with too! This moody little one, Luna, green is made with Derwent Graphitint pencils, their water-soluble nature makes the colors bright when wet, and then the mat board scrap can handle scratching in with the dry pencil while the tints are wet...just having fun with what I've got!













Last one:


Water Meets Sky, The Waves May 2005, another oldie on a piece of scrap paper...a Cape Cod inspiration...