Curious Yellow

"Blue & Yellow"

6 x 8, (c) Lesley Powell 2013

I have written previously about the history of various pigments, including reds and blues. For the curious, it's  now time to turn to Yellows. Yellow reflects more light than any other color, which means that it is at its purest and most intense at a very high value.  No wonder it is so bright and feels so cheery. 

As I wrote with  respect to blues, I typically use one light yellow and one dark yellow on my palette. My light yellow of choice is Cadmium Yellow Light. As you can guess from the name, this pigment contains the mineral cadmium. About half the cadmium produced today is used in batteries. A small percentage goes into pigments such as these paints. Cadmium is toxic. Some years ago, Senator Daniel Moynihan introduced a bill to make cadmium pigments illegal, but it didn't pass (sigh of relief from many artists).

Cadmium pigments were first made in the 1820's, and became more widely available for artists' use in the mid 1840's. They were part of the revolution that changed the palette and helped give birth to Impressionism. In fact, Monet used Cadmium Yellow extensively. There is a wide range of cadmium yellows, but I prefer the light.

Indian Yellow "purree"



I don't use Indian Yellow, but while we are on yellows, the story is too good not to tell. It is widely believed that Indian Yellow was originally made in rural India, from cow's urine. The cows were force fed almost exclusively on mango leaves, then their urine was collected and dried, yielding hard yellow balls of the raw pigment, called "purree". (Photo above). The resulting color was a warm, transparent glazing yellow. The old practice was eventually outlawed because of the cruelty to the animals. Winsor & Newton introduced an effective, artificially manufactured Indian Yellow in 1996. Aren't we glad we live in the modern age??

My "dark yellow" of choice is Raw Umber...stay tuned for a future post, because the umbers are worthy of a column all their own.

Holiday Open House

"Sargent Gallery"

16 x 16, Oil on Canvas

 

Please join me and 25 other artists in the Dilworth Artisan Station building as we open our studios to ring in the holidays! Our annual Holiday Open House and Sale will be held on Friday, December 6, 2013, from 6 pm to 9 pm.  It promises to be a festive evening. You will be amazed at the different points of view represented---from classical portraits to modern abstract works, and everything in between. Come see the latest work, and bring your friends! Here's a link to the official invitation, with links to websites of the participating artists.

 

We are located at 118 E. Kingston Avenue, in Charlotte's South End. My studio is on the top floor---3rd floor--#35. Here's a map. Clue: Office Depot is on the corner of Kingston and South Boulevard.

 

Hope to see you on the 6th!

Polytych

"Chateau de Bourgane", ensemble 18 x 74

You may recall my earlier post about "Chateau Love". I was so drawn to this crumbly old chateau in Provence that I decided to undertake a bold effort to present it in a polyptych. Or maybe it's a double diptych. I'm frankly not sure exactly what to call it!

This was a real design challenge. I wanted each panel to be able to stand on its own. I also wanted any two adjacent panels to pair up well as a diptych. And any three adjacent panels to work as a triptych. After much sketching and head-scratching, I think I developed a layout that is successful.

The height of each panel is 18 inches, and the panels vary in width from 14 inches to 24 inches. I wanted to have the end panels the same size (for harmony) and the other panels different sizes (for syncopation).

These paintings are available for sale either collectively or individually--as single paintings, as a diptych, as a triptych, or as a quadriptych or in any combination of the above. Let your imagination run wild! You can read more about the paintings on my website here.

Special Preview: SMALL GEMS

"Olive Shadows"
8 x 6, Oil on Linen

As a special reward to my faithful blog followers, I am giving you this sneak preview of my 2013 Small Gems sale. Every year I select some of my favorite small works (such as the one above), price them especially for holiday giving, and donate half the proceeds to a charity. This year the donation will go to Levine Children's Hospital, in Charlotte, NC. The contribution will help launch an arts program at the hospital---bringing the power of art to young people who are facing serious illnesses.

Here is a link to the Small Gems collection on my website. I will officially announce the sale later this week.  This post is just a little head start for you, as a way of saying thank you for reading my blog.

While you browse the Gems, remember all the great ways you can use small paintings. Prop them in a bookshelf or on a kitchen counter, incorporate them into a grouping, or put them on easels as tabletop accessories. I especially love to see a little painting hanging low over a table or chest (as in the first photo below). Take a look at these shots for some inspiration! Please see the sale details in italics below.

Photo credit: House Beautiful

Photo Credit: Phoebe Howard

Photo credit: Things that Inspire

Photo Credit: Cote de Texas

Photo credit: Phoebe Howard

DETAILS: Each purchase is "Satisfaction Guaranteed"--if it doesn't work when you see it in person, you can return it within 10 days, no problem. Purchasers outside of NC--no sales tax, but you pay actual UPS shipping. Check preferred, but credit card possible. I will deliver to you upon receipt of your check, and hold the check until you are satisfied. Most (but not all) of the paintings are offered either framed, or unframed, your choice. Sizes and prices are listed on my website in the description of each painting.  A red dot indicates that a painting is SOLD. 

Framed

"Pont Julien"
7.25 x 14.75, Oil on Linen

'Tis a source of great vexation for me---selecting just the right frame for each of my "babies". Recently I have found a treatment that seems to work beautifully on my smaller pieces. It is a gold frame, in a soft tone, with a small wooden fillet. The fillet is antiqued a soft linen color. It provides just enough cushion between the frame and the edge of the painting that the painting doesn't seem squished. Room to breathe, so to speak. Many thanks to Veronica at Campania Fine Moulding for coming up with this!

Frame preferences vary so widely from person to person. I am always curious for feedback. Readers, what is your favorite framing approach?

Showcase Invitation

"La Source Cafe"
Oil on Canvas, 12 x 12

"Pont Julien"
Oil on Linen, 7.25 x 15

Just a note for those of you in Charlotte, to let you know that I am participating in the "Sustainer Showcase", sponsored by The Junior League of Charlotte. It's a one day event, to be held Tuesday, November 12. I will be offering a selection of small paintings (including the ones above, fresh off the easel!), as well as some works on paper. Details below. Part of the proceeds will go to A Child's Place, helping homeless children. The Showcase will feature a wide array of enticing items. It promises to be a great way to start your holiday shopping, and help a worthy cause at the same time. Hope you can drop by!

Anatomy of a Painting

"Olive Trees"
16 x 20, Oil on Canvas

I thought it might be interesting to other painters, and perhaps even more interesting to non-painters, to see the progress of this painting from start to finish. The top photo is my finished painting, which measures 16 x 20 inches. It was painted largely en plein air, in an olive grove in the Luberon area of Provence.

This is the scene I chose to paint (ignore the follow painters under the trees!):

Here is my initial sketch on the canvas. I had previously toned the canvas with a neutral, medium value color. In my sketch, I was interested in the tree shapes and the shadow shapes, and trying to capture how lyrical they were:

Net step, putting in some foreground color, and getting a fix on the shadow shapes before they changed too much as the sun moved. Loved the bright sunlight color--this was getting fun! This is what you always hope for when starting a painting--a little thrill of excitement, when you put the paint on the canvas and say "Yes!".

Now on to stokes of color for the olive foliage, and adding some sky color, as you see below:

Here the hard work begins. I needed to create shapes for the undersides of the olive trees--hard to see, because the branches are so sparsely leaved. Maggie helped me see this better by smudging some of my darker strokes of color to create solid forms for the under-planes of the trees.

OK, now it's been almost four hours, and the time in the field is up. Below you see my painting at the end of the plein air session. You can tell by comparing it to the final version that I made some corrections on the shadow shapes, and opened up the shadow shapes a bit more,  once I got home to my studio. It's hard to resist tinkering with a painting, but I made myself let this one be, and am pleased with the result. Now I want to go back to the olive grove to explore the motif even further!

PS: To see more photos from the session in the olive grove, including the work of my fellow painters,  click here.