Thursday, November 14, 2013

Happy Color and the Value of Small

“Happy Color”    2.5” x 3.5”   Pastel  $20    © Sharon Lewis
Click Here to Purchase 

       
             I’ve spent the day dealing with administrative duties so it’s a great relief to turn back to art and color. Today’s painting is in some ways connected to last night’s art class with Karen Margulis which was so much fun!
            We did minis or as she has named them, “petite pastels”, which I think is a great name for these small paintings. She had us all bring 10 small (2.5 x 3.5) assorted pieces of paper. After her quick demo, we all put our paper in one pile, mixed them up, and then took 10 out of the collection. Ideally, you got paper that you might not be familiar with so that you could try it out. Then we all got to work and had a lot of fun.
            Karen had discussed that one of the advantages of these petite pastels is the opportunity to experiment with different subject matter or use them as small studies for a larger painting. After a little initial trepidation, we got to work. When I looked at everyone’s paintings, they were stunning! I saw small masterpieces painted last night! We all agreed that when you reduced the pressure to produce a masterpiece, and told yourself that you were just experimenting, we all felt more comfortable painting. The end result I think was an increase in our creativity.
            This is one of the many things that amazes me about creativity, and that is, the tremendous sensitivity to emotional state or mind set. It’s also one of the reasons that sometimes we artists can be our own worst enemy. But last night was also testament to what tremendous potential we all have when someone frees us from pressure and self doubt.
            I will post some of these petite pastels in future as I still have to set them up to be photographed. In the meantime, I share with you a petite version of fall in a Georgia state park.

        

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