"It's funny that you bring up Alizarin Crimson. Right now I'm think of putting in curtains in the one window in the painting with the cobalt blue sky. It's not a sure thing yet but the thought of doing a red, white and blue painting is hitting me over the head. Alizarin Crimson is the base color (deep red as you know) but the curtains will have to be much warmed up as the sun is affecting it's shade. I certainly wouldn't have cobalt blue walls in my house or alizarin Crimson's shades around the place but put in a painting would work as a color scheme. Right now there will be the same blue reflected in the window going down to the red curtains but it's all up in the air. Another thought was to put clouds in lower in the back as if a front is coming in but that thought is fading. Another thought was to put a young tree in on the left side so it would show a lot of dappled shadows and light going down the front of the house. The color of the porch shingles is very rough. It is a base for the faded shingles that will come. It will turn almost into a gray but I wanted to have that rust or coral color for a base. Right now, if I put in crimson curtains, it will compete with that color too much as it is......as it never was to be either.
Interesting fact: If you take Rembrandt Alizarin Crimson and Rembrandt Green and mix equal amounts of each together, you get 'space' black...the blackest black possible in oil paint. You don't have to buy black if you have the other two colors. I have a tube of black which isn't as good at all but it's because I'm too lazy. I used to sharpen my pencils with an Exacto knife too but now I use a good electric sharpener. I'm so lazy. so lazy. The 'spirit' has left me long ago. It's the same as why buy a thing of broccoli when it comes in a plastic package ready for the microwave?
None of the house is done....especially the window and all the clapboards. The brown at the bottom is still the tone on the canvas...no paint yet. 10 days so far."
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| the attic |
"I forget that you put what I say on the blog. I do write to you (first)
and don't think about it anywhere past that point. If I thought it would
be put on a blog, hard copy, I would work hours with a thesaurus and
dictionary first. I hope I didn't say anything controversial. I painted
in some reflective sky in the window last night and I'll try to take a
picture of it today outside......it's much better than the indoor photo I
took yesterday morning. I hate the glare I get from the art lamp in
here (the studio)"
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| The Attic |
(The Attic, original oil, has been sold. The door is green in the finished work.)
The Barber Shop again. I knew it had a deep black to it. I went back to see...
" I honestly don't remember but there is a good chance I did. 99 percent chance since I always mixed more colors then. This is NOT to say that I don't today. I mix hundreds of colors still but since black comes already made in a tube, I buy that to save 10 seconds off of my life. However, I never use pure black in anything I paint so the black in Barber Shop was probably very dark blue or purple or brown. But still R.G and R. A.C. too for the most part. Maybe I'll start using it again. It's like the vegetables....you grow them but I buy in microwave bags since it saves me so much time as that is what most old people do. I don't feel old, but I am."
