I have been painting this piece on and off for the past month. This is just a little part of a 30" x 30" painting, the focal point. The scene is located in my neighborhood, and I remember taking a very peaceful early morning walk on December 23. This little bit, right here is what it felt like to be me on that cold and winter morning. It's what it felt like to have my adult children all in my home sleeping, home from Portland and San Diego. The whole day felt like this.
The second gift that I received was painting the tranquil scene at a later time, like all the past month, and to be able to dwell on such a place. How blessed is that?
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I enjoyed observing my two granddaughters this weekend, two beautiful girls having a delightful time with each other. The younger, only seventeen months old, was enamored with the older, five years. I witnessed a distinct tacit desire in the younger to have all the accomplishments, size and abilities of the older. Not a new concept. Younger siblings, cousins and peers provide a great deal of stimulation and motivation to want to speak well and run like the wind.
As I observed Luna's longing and fascination with her older cousin's natural talents, I saw myself as an artist. What I deem valid and important to my work and growth is inspired by someone else. I am engaged with the consideration that I am no more than a seventeen month child. And being that child is, yes, frustrating for the moment, for all that I erroneously think that I cannot do, yet simultaneously wondrous. Wanting more is unending and revitalizing and universal. We are born with it and are driven by it our entire lives. Wanting to paint with a consistent unremitting grace is what I aspire to. My granddaughters' day of play reminded me of my human nature. Personalizing it, I see that my desires to express an artist's passion effortlessly is both already here, and yet forever out of my reach. Monet stated it most poetically, "I would like to paint the way a bird sings". Stage 2 really changes the under painting. In Stage 2 each mass is refined by adding colors, one pure color layer at a time. Stage 2 defines the light key (atmosphere).The second stage usually takes the longest to achieve. The bright areas take on more subtlety, the more different colors laid into and on top of each previous layer.
The goal is a luminous painting, rich with color, but not over bright. The windows are showing more warm on my monitor than they actually are. I had to really squint down to get the values right. No details have yet been added. I'll have to be careful not to add to many when I get to stage 3. |
Luminous Color Explorations
My name is Jill Keller Peters, and I am passionate about using color as a language to Archives
August 2020
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