ColorChat: "Shadowplay", 36 x 48

When my children, Matt and Amy (center), were young, my wonderful in-laws took us on a vacation to Disneyland with their cousins, Dustin and Becca (on the outside). We stayed in the Lofton motorhome, parked at the Disneyland RV campground. After walking for hours around the park, we enjoyed relaxing breaks in the campground hot tub. I'm always drawn to the sight of water, and was fascinated by patterns created in the hot tub by air bubbles.
There are two things I'd like to mention concerning the composition of this piece. First, I added the fifth figure (we see the back of his shoulders and head in the foreground) to keep the eye of the viewer in the painting. The gaze of this boy (we'll call him Steve), leads us to Amy, and next to Becca, floating with the beach ball. Our eyes follow the turn of Becca's head toward Matt and then travel on to Dustin. Dustin looks at Steve and the circle (or triangle) is completed. Our eyes stay in the shadowed portion of the picture as we follow the gazes of the figures. Second, I broke all the rules by placing the lighted area solely in the upper right hand corner of the painting. Once an artist learns the rules, she can break them from time to time for effect.

Train Your Brain

Inside each of our skulls, we have a double brain with two ways of knowing. As each of our hemispheres gathers in the same sensory information, each half of our brains handles the information in different ways. Left-brain functions are logical, analytic and verbal, while right-brain functions are visual, spatial, intuitive, creative and non-verbal. Today, educators are increasingly concerned with the importance of intuitive and creative thought. Nevertheless, school systems in general are still structured in the left-hemisphere mode. The right brain goes largely untaught. Half a brain is better than none, but a whole brain would be better.
Gaining conscious access to the right-brain mode of thinking is vital to learning to draw (and create art), but it has implications for the field of education in general as well. People from diverse fields of knowledge, when aware of the full functional potential of both sides of their brains, can enhance both thinking modes, thereby increasing their personal growth.

Betty Edwards
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
(paraphrased)

Plein Air Paintings

The works below were created outside in the open air, where the artist heads to learn from the greatest landscape teacher of all, nature itself. Painting outdoors helps one develop a sensitivity to nature and a visual memory that will inform studio works. Plein air paintings are usually small and have a spontaneous quality about them because the artist must work quickly. There are only about two hours before any given scene will change dramatically because of the moving sun and resulting changes in shadow and light patterns.

ColorChat

"Shadowplay", 36 x 48

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