Patience and Possibilities

Patient Pelican  Watercolors 6"x7"

I have been rereading  (or rather re-looking at the illustrations/paintings from) Jeanne Dobie's Making Color Sing. This was my very first purchase when I started painting in watercolors many years ago. Two days ago, her chapter on 'Mouse Power - achieving luminous grays' prompted me to finally paint the photograph of this pelican I had taken a while back. According to her 'mouse colors are like the bit players who support the stars.' 

I didn't quite follow her instructions or do the exercises,  but selected a transparent red, aureolin yellow, cobalt blue and viridian to make my grays, and used the grays to paint everything but the little yellow and orange patches on the bird :) A smaller brush than I normally use and waiting patiently for the paint to dry between the layers helped too.

Reading parts of the chapter while waiting for the paint to dry showed me the weakness in my  usual method of studying only the pictures in an art book rather than reading the chapters in detail!  I guess I need to change my ways a bit and not try to reinvent the wheel on my own!

I had moved away from her suggested rose madder genuine a few years ago since it had been rated poorly for color fastness in "The Wilcox Guide to the Best Watercolor Paints."   While linking her book to amazon.com, I noticed that there is a newer edition of her book- hope  she has replacements for the fugitive colors in the new version.

The Art Thief

I haven't drawn, sketched or painted today.  I spent some time  earlier this morning framing one of my finished pieces. I am spending the rest of the day reading the book "The Art Thief"  by Noah Charney  :).    The blurb on the back of the book  by Steve Berry, author of  the Venetian Betrayal  reads " A vivid marvelously readable look at the world of stolen art. The fascinating tale keeps you constantly wondering -does this stuff really happen? " I still have quite a few pages to go ...... but I am enjoying the suspense.  Lots of art-history and by the way, which would you rather own-  an Old Master or an abstract Modern Art? 

And once again, since I probably will not pick-up the paint brush today,  I am posting a painting from my collection -- Iris in watercolors. 8x11"  - I painted it freehand from life.