Local Color

Did you know that you should ALWAYS lay out your colors in the same order when painting?  Did you know that you need to have a reason to be painting a subject?  Well, after watching the movie, Local Color for the fourth time I am finally hearing what Nicholi is teaching to that young man.  If you haven't seen the movie I highly recommend you do so.  It is a good story besides being about painting and painters and life in general.
So, I haven't been up stairs since I finished Randall.  I guess I just didn't have a subject to work on.  I did set up a bunch of Wine bottles and was ready to start trying to paint them again, all lined up like little soldiers.  I guess my mind just said " why?".   Well, because I have them and have a hard time painting bottles and subjects like that?  Yeah, that's why.
So,  instead, I planted some tomatoes and peppers, and a couple of flowers.  My neighbor brought over peony's.  They were blooming madly at her home she said.  She brought over pink buds and I thought, ok... But by the end of the day the jar they were in was empty of water and they were more than half open.  And smelled so very sweet.  SURPRISE.!!  So I had to buy my own Peony plant and have my own bloom.  It takes the plant two year to mature enough to do that I also found out. ( sigh)  So, I think she thought I would grab her beautiful offering and head up stairs to paint them.  But that is a lot of Pink, Mother's day flowers.  So, if I can figure out how to do a bunch of them, or maybe just one, I"ll post my picture.
Festival's are very "big" around here in South Carolina.  There were two last weekend.  A magnolia Festival in Pickens, with bounce houses, train rides, face painting, long booths full of hand made wares for sale.  Food like pork sandwiches, boiled peanuts, some carnival rides.  Westminister had Andy Griffin days.  With people walking around as the characters from the T.V. show and two parades.  And probably the same kind of kids things to do.  This week it was Central and they have a rail road museum in town, so everything was centered around railroads.  We parked and took a bus to town, to walk around and ride Thomas the train with Paige and Aubrey, climb all over a  bright red caboose, that had a stove and chairs and sink etc. that you could look at and touch.  Lowes had a workshop for making a wooden bank.  They had a simulator of teaching a real engineer to drive a train.  Lots of hand outs, firemen to talk to about being safe, and pork sandwiches.  I forgot to mention, there is music, and cloggers, and magic shows too.  But these two grandparents are burnt out from Festivals and I think the granddaughters are also.  But then again, the end of May is Seneca Fest.!!!
 So, go online and find the movie Local Colors and watch it 4 times and maybe some of it will sink in.
The problem with putting my colors in an order is that every time I go to a class, another teacher wants them in her order so she can help me on my picture.  I should have figured this out a long time ago.  So, what colors do I like to use all the time?  Cad light red.  Cad light green.  ( love this color), lemon yellow, Indian yellow, ( a new one for me.) Veridian ( always)  Pain's Grey, Curruilian blue, Prussian Blue ( skies..) Turquoise blue, Sage green, Raw sienna.  I seek these colors out every time I start a painting.  So, I am slowly finding the colors I like to work with  on almost every painting.  I like Brown too.  But I never can remember the name for it.  I am favoring Lucas brand colors.  I realize that some colors you can't get  in certain brands.  The next class if I should feel the need to be inspired and taught again, I should practice on the colors the teacher wants you to use, and put them in the order she gives them.  It makes it easier for him/her to pick up the paintbrush, find her color she wants to use and fix my painting.  Although I am getting to the part where I don't want them to touch the painting.  I want them to tell me what I do to fix the problem.  So, onward to paint.