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.
I know a lot of artists who will roll their eyes or cringe when they hear someone say they are looking for a painting to match their couch. “Art should be bought because you love it”, they’ll say. “Because it speaks to you”. And wouldn’t it be nice if we all had the money to buy the art first and decorate our rooms around it.
But most people already have flooring and maybe have picked a wall color and bought a sofa and tables and lamps and now, maybe have some money to buy art. It’s probably the last thing and they want it to fit in with every thing else. That’s OK.
Then again it doesn’t have to MATCH. You know that technical term the designers use…you don’t want too much “matchy-matchy”.
My walls are forever changing—art goes up when I paint new ones; art comes down when it goes to a show; back up when the show is over; down when I sell it. Anyway…this piece is up on the wall. It is mostly blue. So are the 2 small ones. I have no blue in my living room. I do have brown, which is a darker version of orange. Orange is the complement of blue (opposite on the color wheel) so they go together. Nice! And there is a little orange near the horizon where the sun has set.
Art in my living room.
See that. It’s all good.
Next time more tips on art on the walls. Until then I want to know…what’s on your walls?
Making art usually takes place in solitude, not always, but usually. So many artists like to have a social outlet to keep them sane and the company of other artists allows them to discuss some of the challenges they encounter.
Every Saturday morning I get together with a group of artists for breakfast at a local diner. We catch up on the week’s activities and discuss the “Art question of the week.” Non-artists are welcome, spouses and friends as well.
An older gentleman has become a regular. I believe he has done some sketching. He is Swiss, looks like Santa with a shock of white hair, bushy white eyebrows, and white beard. I don’t always understand him. He is soft spoken, chuckling while he speaks, and telling jokes I don’t get.
I was showing around some paintings I had done the past week that I have photos of on my iPhone. This gentleman didn’t know how to swipe through the photos and kept bringing up the calculator somehow. He liked the last one I had done and asked what size it was and how much I charged. It was an 8×10″ and I told him it was $100. He said a 16×20″ would be twice as much cuz it’s twice as big as he chuckled. We said, no, that was 4 times as big, and I told him what I have charged for 16x20s. He held out the phone and said 16×20. I said that was an 8×10. He said 16×20. I said 8×10. He laughed and said 16×20. I asked the man next to me, “Does he want me to paint him a 16×20?”
He then asked if I was going to enlarge it with a machine? I asked him if he wanted a print and he looked at me and laughed. “You want me to paint you a 16×20? “Oh that will be lively,” he said. (Not lovely, lively). He took out his wallet and handed me two large bills and said he’d pay me the rest the next time he saw me. “Don’t worry, take your time” he chuckled.
So I’m painting a 16×20″ painting of the 8×10. And I’m chuckling.
I love skies. I find them easy to paint for the most part. And I love water. I enjoy painting water as well and usually I’m happy with the way it turns out. It’s all the “tidily bits” (as Dr. Who would say) in between I have trouble with… you know…the rest of the earth. Trees in particular give me grief. I’ve been in regions where there is a lack of trees, desert areas, new subdivisions, and I definitely prefer trees.
Without leaves they are very spikey and linear as opposed to the rest of my painting, which is more massive shapes. With leaves they can be frilly if I look too closely. They can be very GREEN for much of the year. I like the palm trees of the warmer states, with their huge fronds, tall thin trunks, and separateness.
So I here I put them in and take them out and try again and scape them out and just keep painting. Finally I am happy. “Sunset on the River” 8×10″ acrylic on gessobord panel, unframed, available for $100 via http://www.dailypaintworks.com/fineart/andrea-jeris/sunset-on-the-river/397447
andreajeris 