4-24-14 WeeklyWatercolor

Mossy Rocks in the Green Wood, 5 x 7", watercolor on Arches paper

I just noticed today that the spring green is really coming out and starting to reflect into the interior of my home. It is lovely! Last May, I took a hike with friends from St. Peter's and we spent a beautiful afternoon at Anglin Falls, south of Berea, KY. I don't believe I've ever been in such a green world. It was like spending time in an alternate universe--and it was so close to home.
      I made this little watercolor to remember that green world. Give me a few days and I'll have it all packaged up and available in the drawer at M S Rezny Studio/Gallery, 903 Manchester Street, Lexington, KY. You can have a little piece of the green world! Happy Spring!

Making Color Hum

Moss and Wild Phlox, 5 x 7", watercolor on Arches paper

      You always hear teachers say that they learn a lot from teaching, and this is true for me as well. Every time I teach a class or workshop, I know that I will gain new insights from participant-students. At my last workshop, we were talking about using only the three primary colors to mix up all the colors in our watercolor layers. Jule suggested that I check out Making Color Sing: Practical Lessons in Color and Design, by Jeanne Dobie. So I did, and it is a marvelous book. I couldn't wait to try out the particular colors that she especially values. I ordered a couple of colors that I had not tried before and set to work on painting exclusively with the recommended three primary colors.
      I love mixing colors, but there was something amiss for me. It was too high key and not nearly "murky" enough. I was itching to reach for my preferred colors--and even more than that, the "used" palettes from my classes and workshops. I always encourage my students to take their palettes with them, but they often leave them behind and I then use them for my paintings. They are actually, quite splendid, with all sorts of amazing colors premixed. They provide the same deep and indescribable colors found in nature. Then my only task is to bring out the pure and bright in spots. It really works for me. I guess I prefer my colors to hum, and even at a low register, than to sing!

Pre-prepared palettes that make my paintings hum! The bottom painting on the right is  made with the three primary colors suggested by Jeanne Dobie. Above that is a painting filled with my pre-mixed, preferred palette paints.

3.5 Leaf Clover

Sometimes you find what you need

Today, everything is bursting out, and all at once. Maybe the blooms want to have at least one day of glory before the freezing temperatures claim their brilliance and buoyancy. The clover was looking bounteous as well, as I set out on a walk (and in the back of my mind, looking for a sign and guidance for a little dilemma.) The clover is my totem plant. I don't consider extra leaf clovers to be good luck, so much as signs that I'm on the right path. So, it was interesting when I turned the corner, admired a lush bunch of clover and thought I spotted a 4-leaf clover. On closer inspection (I plucked it) it had three leaves. The top leaf was a super leaf with two major veins.
        What sort of sign was this, I pondered. Here is what I came up with and perhaps this might apply to you as well. I seem to have been given all the raw materials I need (okay, want). It is just that it has arrived in a different form than I was anticipating. You know about this, too. Life is much more curious, interesting (and sometimes frustrating) than we ever expect it to be.  Our job is to use the raw materials we've been given and create the life that we want and even appreciate the unexpected form that life has taken.

4 veins and 3 leaves

Enchanting April

Enchanting April, watercolor on Arches paper

April is a most welcome month, especially this year. The drabness of winter is at its peak, as all the green things have given up after blast after blast of arctic air. Even the ivy has had it this year. Then, all of a sudden, green happens anew. I love how the daffodils burst forth energetically, even as the trees are bare. Hope returns.
     I've always liked April, but infinitely more so for the past twenty five years after a very special person arrived. She is rather like April herself, full of enchantment. She can play the Waltz of the Flowers cadenza on the harp and run a marathon. She arrived in France and got on the phone to arrange for renting La Maison Rose and made Thanksgiving for twenty in that same house's tiny kitchen (the meal  included 4 pies!) She cares about the huddled masses and was the only one who knew how to firmly, yet lovingly, train Carly. What a gift she has been and she was given to us in April!