New Year—New Colors

 

Gazing, 6×8″ acrylic

Pantone Inc. is best known for its Pantone Matching System (PMS), a proprietary color space used in a variety of industries, primarily printing, though sometimes in the manufacture of colored paint, fabric, and plastics. Annually, Pantone declares a particular color “Color of the Year”. Fashion designers, florists, and many other consumer-oriented companies look to Pantone to help guide their designs and planning for future products. Pantone has said that color “has always been an integral part of how a culture expresses the attitudes and emotions of the times.”

Pantone has chosen two colors for 2016, Serenity, muted pale blue, and Rose Quartz, a pale pink. A challenge was put forth on Daily Paintworks to create a piece or art using those colors. This is my answer to the challenge.

http://www.dailypaintworks.com/fineart/andrea-jeris/gazing/438373

I ALWAYS Learn Something When I Paint with Others

“Dock of the River”

Thursday was no exception. I go out painting “en plein air” or painting out doors with a group or artists on Thursdays. There are 2 dozen artists on the list and one beautiful artist coordinates a place and communicates to us via email. Those who intend to paint respond so no one ends up showing up alone.

Last week 5 were supposed to paint; only one other artist showed besides myself. But we had a guest.

A well-known and local artist, Tim Widener, was bicycling through the park and spotted Theresa, my fellow artist, and stopped. He had been painting nearby the day before, would like to come out and finish his painting, and asked if we would like to join him. He’d be glad to give us some instruction as well. Uh, yeah! He is also a well-known instructor.

His spot was on a lookout right on the river where you can see the boat dock. Seeing another artist’s color choices, brush choices and process is always interesting. Watching him work on Theresa’s pastel was cool too. I had blocked in my sky, trees and water and was going to put in the boats later. He said I needed that white line in there almost immediately to be able to relate to it. Seems I remember hearing something like that from an instructor long, long ago, and it seems I had forgotten that.

Tim Widener giving some suggestions to Theresa.

Thanks Tim. It was a joy painting with you.

“Dock of the River” 6x6x” acrylic on gessobord panel, unframed, available for  $50 via http://www.dailypaintworks.com/fineart/andrea-jeris/dock-of-the-river/399857

How Far Can You Throw a Painting?

Beach or Water

Pretty far it turns out when you paint on a 6×6″ hardboard panel. It’s kind of like a square Frisbee.

Clearly not every painting is a masterpiece, and there is this emotional roller coaster artists go through when painting, (this is good, what am I doing, why did I think I could paint, it’s not so bad, I’m fantastic). Sometimes you just have to wash it off and start over. Sometimes half way through you lose your inspiration or vision of what you wanted. Then what do you do?

Half way through I was going to fling this one out the window. I walked away. Went to do something else. Cleaned up for the day. Washed out my brushes. Did not look at it again until the next day.

As I walked into my studio in the morning I noticed how I liked the contrast. And the composition. The vision was back. The inspiration was back. I went back to work. It’s not a masterpiece but I am happy. And that’s what I am looking for.

“Beach or Water”, acrylic on Gessobord panel 5×7″ unframed, is available by for $50 http://www.dailypaintworks.com/fineart/andrea-jeris/relaxing-either-way/394477