Clarity

There are several reasons why this painting and post are called Clarity. Perhaps I should clarify right? Before I do, I will share the purpose of this blog and post.

Small Spaces Special Places

Each year, I select a theme for my weekly paintings. This year’s is “Small Spaces Special Places.” One reason for this theme is I have been surprised, even delighted, with the small spaces in our house that have captured my eye.

Then, there are the special places I see on my daily dog walks here in Raleigh and on camping treks, too. Each morning, rain or shine, I love getting outdoors and looking for special places to paint. Sometimes, we venture on the road and I share paintings of special places from these trips.

If you know someone who you think might enjoy a weekly dose of color, with a dash of art history, please encourage them to sign up here for this weekly blog. Let’s get to the colorful stuff, shall we?

Fog and then Clarity

Here’s why clarity is wonderful. Not sure if you have felt as if you have been living in a fog lately? I sure have. But I’ll focus on the fog in the art and painting world for purposes of this post. For the past several months, I have been working in a water-based medium called gouache. In fact, I have been taking a course so I can better understand this medium. The course is informative and fun. But, at one point, the instructor shares his delight with gouache. He even suggests there are techniques so that gouache practically feels like oil paint.

Hold it right there buddy! Don’t get me wrong. I love gouache. But after weeks and weeks of using nothing but gouache, I knew it was time to reunite with oil paint. Here’s my experience and why I will probably keep working in both media.

Clarity about Gouache

For me, gouache is an excellent tool for me to use when I know I’ll be heading out on the road. Why? Well, it’s simple: bring water, paints, a few old rags and paper. That’s it! So, I can paint, have color and be on the road, too. Gouache is also something that I want to use as a color sketch tool for longer oil paintings. I haven’t started to do this yet but hope to soon. But when it comes to the feeling of the medium on the surface, there is absolutely nothing…nothing better than oil paint.

Clarity about Oil Paint

The lusciousness of oil paint is hard to beat. I wish I could use words to describe the feeling I get applying paint to painting surface (mostly panel these days). There’s a smoothness even a juiciness to oil painting that, sorry gouache gurus, nothing compares. I have only started three oil paintings this week. But each one has been such a delight. Not only does the feeling transcend there’s ‘edge management.’

What the heck do I mean by edge management? Well, let’s say there are two different colors next to each other in a painting. And, let’s say I want to adjust the shape of the darker color into the light color. The push and pull of doing this in oil painting is nothing more than magical. I did this quite a bit to paint the painting I am sharing with you this week. You might not know this but those little curly cues at the tips of this leaf, definitely required some paint pushing and pulling. And, shazam, it felt so great to do that this week. Here’s the work in progress shot from my ‘new’ studio at the back of our house.

Yes, yes you can do this sort of thing in gouache. But just by nature of the medium (water based versus oil based) it just doesn’t feel the same.

Limitations

One other parameter I have incorporated into my daily painting practice is a limited palette. Why? Primarily, I decided to do this because the gouache course I have taken used 5 colors (red, yellow, blue, ivory black and titanium white). I thought it would be fun to head back over to oil painting world using the same palette.

I have been really surprised how much range this palette has. And, I have been delighted to learn the capacity that ivory black has to warm and neutralize the three ‘primaries’ (red, yellow, blue). As for the amount of time, I’ll spend using this limited palette? I’m not sure. I do know that if I can learn to use these colors effectively in oil painting, I may end up bringing oils along on our next road trip. Stay tuned on that.

Cloudy or Clarity

How about you gentle reader? Are you experiencing more clarity in your life or work? Or are you still feeling as if you’re muddling through a cloudy mist? Either way, I would be delighted to hear from you in the comments below.