 Each year there is a secret meeting of people in the color industry to pick the annual "color of the year" and this year's color is Marsala...the "rich and full-bodied red-brown...sultry and subtle" (sexy words excerpted from Pantone website) So, you ask, what's the big deal about Pantone and its colors? I shall enlighten you (as I have just enlightened myself.)
In a nutshell, Pantone colors are the industry standard so that when someone talks about a specific shade of blue it will perfectly match with someone on the other side of the world. Even our computer monitors display so many variations in colors, as do paint chips. So, way back in the 1950's (when I was but a child) a new college graduate named Lawrence Herbert applied his chemistry knowledge to standardize ink colors at the printing company where he worked. It saved them a bundle in excessive and unnecessary ink colors. He bought out the ink and printing division and named his new company Pantone. It's been a raging success every since, guaranteeing that what you order in a Pantone color is what you are going to get no matter where in the world it is created. Pantone colors are everywhere, from Coca Cola to Fiesta dishes to hundreds of logos. I should paint something in Marsala...what should it be??
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 Hello Sir Rooster. This good looking fellow was pretty serious about his job, let me tell you. All his little ladies were happily chatting me up, but not him. He kept the stink eye on me most of the time, for sure! But what a great Harem Master he was...always keeping tabs on the gals, finding them bugs, watching for hawks overhead and critters on ground-level. I think he knows how handsome he is and I hope I did him justice with my paintbrush.  I like how these girls don't worry at all about their shape, although, who knows? There's an awful lot of clucking that goes on in the hen house. They seem to be very proud of the lovely brown eggs they produce. I love that coy little backwards glance this sweetie pie is giving me.  This is the second time I've painted this particular chicken...last summer I gave another version to my favorite CSA farmer, Judy, who provided us with a summer's worth of delicious vegetables and who also owns all these great chickens. I never did make it over to her barn area where she says there are cows and stuff. It's on my painting agenda when Spring arrives. Help me name these paintings! I got some really great suggestions on the previous post, so please submit your ideas in the comment box. Thank you!! Back in summer when the sun was shining and the air temperature suggesting margaritas by the pool, I spent a few hours getting to know chickens. Their coop was located down a little hill, next to a quiet stream, mostly dry in the summer heat. I had fun plein air painting their habitat all nestled up in the Tennessee greens and blues but dang if I could plein air paint an actual chicken! They are in constant motion, those fidgety fowls, so I gave up and just snapped photos to paint later in the studio.
I visited with these ladies several times last summer and became better acquainted with the habits of chickens, which are actually kind of adorable. I used to roll my eyes at the ubiquitous chicken paintings, but no more. They are really fun to do! Feel free to roll your eyes, but just know that I had a whole lot of fun plopping these gals onto canvas in an abstract-y background. Help me name these paintings! Put your suggestions in the comment box and we'll see what you come up with. Don't be shy :) Oh, and there's more so stay tuned. Just for the fun of it, I decided to check my 2014 artsy activities and here's what's what:: 2 Acrylic abstracts 4 Commissioned paintings 5 Art shows 10 Sold paintings 15 Plein air paintings 39 Studio paintings I guess I'm painting faster than I thought and finally feel confident that I have the proverbial "body of work" in my studio. At the beginning, it would take me months to finish a painting! So much second-guessing, correcting values and colors, simply learning how to create a 3-D image on a 2-D surface. Have I turned a corner this past year? I feel much more confident with color mixing, composition, preliminary sketching and am making progress on values and edges. Thanks for taking the journey with me last year! Your encouraging comments, emails and responses mean so much to me!! I've already jumped on 2015 with several paintings coming down the chute...stay tuned! Sneak Peek!  |
