Time for a summer update! Health issues in the family have prevented me from blogging much this year. Time to turn that around. Great news:
-Two award winners in the current Watauga Valley Art League Show in Elizabethton, TN, at Sycamore Shoals through the end of July. See main page of www.jeancorbett.com for the judges comments.
- Upcoming show at the Johnson City Medical Center, Johnson City, TN, in August, where you can see these paintings and many others
- Just completed a workshop with Mary Todd Beam, a wonderful watermedia painter - loose, loose, loose - so expect to see some new ideas soon.
- Working on a series of watercolors for children in India
- New Product so that you can enjoy a World of Painting year-round: a 2011 Calendar for $18 plus shipping.
- New link to Daniel Smith, Artist Supplies, that offers Free Shipping.
I hope that you are painting and continuing to explore your artistic side. More on that next week!
by Jean Corbett on 2/12/2010 8:45:09 AM
3 Comments
Complete! Music in My Soul
Many glazes were used to create the depth of color
while maintaining the intensity of his emotions.
I wish that you could hear him play - music is in his soul.
Contact me for portraits of your own choosing. Still time for Mother's Day gifts!
This young man is a gifted musician - able to play whatever instrument he picks up - but his love is the trombone! This photo was taken by New Simplicity as part of a series for his senior pictures.
Heather certainly has captured his love of the music which lives in his soul -
and, as his step-grandmother, I am trying to capture the same feeling.
Visit New Simplicity by going to my links and view Heather's work - a talented photographer.
And stay tuned for more of this painting as Decker's love for music is captured!
East Tennessee minatures are such fun to create! An easy way to paint and share the forgotten days of olden times - when life was hard work, but the surroundings were peaceful and uplifting. All these minatures are mounted and ready to hang or may be framed. Visit "Landscapes" to view more and purchase a corner of peacefulness!
by Jean Corbett on 1/18/2010 12:05:03 PM
2 Comments
East Tennessee Images
2010
2009 had many health and family challenges - but it was not without opportunity to try something new. I have been fascinated by the landscape in East Tennessee, a land of many barns, old mills, rolling hills and scenes of tranquility.
Better Days, Elizabethton, Tennessee
These gems are original watercolors with pen and ink, painted on paper and mounted on a painted canvas. They are ready to be hung on the wall on the canvas, or the canvas can be mounted in a frame.
The sizes are small - 4"x4" to 4"x12" - small enough for a little bit of nostalgia or grouped together for a larger display of East Tennessee.
Although Tennessee is currently colder than New England, I am hoping that spring is just around the corner. As the season approaches, it is time to think of portraits and paintings for Mother's Day and Father's Day. Perhaps a portrait of you as a youngster that was one of Mom's favorites - or a pencil drawing that brings back memories of days gone by. Go through those old photos and arrange to have one painted for your loved one!
Adam is a very talented fiddler who has been playing in the Erwin, TN area since he was 6. He is also an honor roll student and wonderful young man.
The Fiddle Festival at the Farmhouse Gallery in Unicoi is a great happening here in East Tennessee. A day full of good food, fiddlers galore of all ages, artists doing demonstrations, a blacksmith honing his wares, and lots of antique cars. Put it on your calendar for next April - the last weekend of the month!
Yesterday I spent time with a painting friend who is dying of cancer soon....and yet her eyes are still brillant with the wonder of living and the joy to be had in each moment. She shared her outlook with me, writing on a white board since she no longer has the ability to speak. Let me share with you:
Leave nothing undone
Leave nothing unspoken
Go to bed knowing that you have lived life to the fullest today
Patricia is an inspiration
- a gal who came to painting classes although she couldn't speak
- a gal who tried everything that she could envision in the painting world
- a gal whose paintings spring with life and vitality and imagination
- a gal who is gutsy and laughs readily
- a gal who sees the funny side of life amidst the troubling side of things
- a gal who crochets blankets for the homeless
- a gal who inspires
Patricia is an inspiration!!!
Thank you, Patricia, for inspiring me and so many others
Like a crocus in the spring, your life will inspire forever!
Still working on the "Still Life of Wine Bottles" that was started in the last blog. This week I would like to talk about the use of warm and cool colors and how they can excite your paintings. You will notice as you look around the painting that many small details of the wine bottles have been completed. This was done in order to begin to balance the colors that I am using. I prefer to work all over the painting, rather than painting the subject first or the background first. The white of the paper will give you a false sense of how the colors are going to look when complete if you do not work this way. For instance, the perfection of the flower that you have developed and are in love with will take on different qualitied when you start putting in a colored background rather than the white of the paper. It will suddenly "dim". So, my advice is to do both at the same time.
Warm colors:
Work well in shadows
Make the painting glow
Cool colors:
Work well in bright sunlight
Make the contrast of dark and light glow
Please note the following areas in the painting:
The area of the window on the left side of the painting. This area is more in shadow that the right side. The left side is full of glazes of warm colors and glows warmth. These colors make this portion of the painting fade into the background - but not lose interest.
The right area of the window is full of cool colors. This area is the most brightly lit from the sunlight. The coolness, caused by the reflection of the sky, causes the area to appear more highly lit.
The background area behind the bottles, outside of the window, is vague, cool, and grayed. All of these things - graying of the color, less detail, and cool colors, cause this area of the painting to recede - and not vie for your attention as the viewer.
You will also want to look at the right side of the cork on the blue bottle. The shadows make this cork look tilted....caused by the fact that there is an area of reflected bright light on this side of the cork. The background is very light here - but the addition of a darked glaze here will illuminate the reflected and make the cork look straight.
All of these are small items to take into consideration - but will make your painting glow and add areas of interest for the viewer. After all, part of painting is to capture the viewer's eye and contain it within the painting! Then they will fall in love with it too!
Enjoy playing with warm and cool. It will open up a whole new area for you to discover. Hopefully the painting will be completed by the next blog. I have been really busy with a show, the league monthly meeting and teaching a class. If you would like to host a workshop in your area, please contact me at jean_corbett@yahoo.com.
On a side trip off of Interstate 81, a winding road brings you to a little vineyard and winery nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Filled with delicious wines and wine making supplies, a quaint store opens to bring you into the life of grapes. Countryside Vineyards and Winery in Blountville, TN, has inspired me to create another wine bottle still life! The reflections of the wines and bottles in the afternoon sunlight were sensational and I could not pass the opportunity to create.
The arrangement of the still life took into consideration all of the angles of the forms included in the photo, eliminating the edges of the antique sewing machine on the right and cropping the image slightly to fit the format of the paper.
Now, how to create the look I imagine. First, I selected the transparent watercolor paints that I wanted to use, making certain that none of them had any granulation which would distract from the clarity of the wine and the reflections. This meant that I used a separate piece of paper to try each paint out and see how the colors mixed together.
Secondly, I traced the parts of the photo that I wanted to use and transferred that drawing to the 300lb Arches hot-pressed paper. I LOVE 300lb Arches! It takes abuse, many layers, and stays wet long enough for the paints to mingle on the paper.
The first washes of paint were over the mid sections - a light wash of Windsor Yellow - to increase the glow of the final painting. After that initial wash was dry, I began the process of layering each of the bottles and reflections. The bottles were worked in small sections, and the reflections in large washes of color dropped onto wet paper allowing the colors to mingle.
I used masking to save the whitest of the lights - it shows as yellow, especially inthe middle wine bottle and at the base of the strawberry wine (which was delicious).
Background colors were muted shades of the wine bottles, grayed down and mingled while wet. The muting and graying accomplished what I wanted - a frame of neutrals that had life.
More to come in the next blog! It feels good to be back in the grove of painting after a rather busy and complicated winter. Keep painting and enjoy the process!
Please note the following areas in the painting:
