ABC Wednesday - C is for Colour, Collage and Canadian Artists

This week at ABC Wednesday, C is our letter of focus.

For an artist C is a very important one - for C is for

COLOUR! Which for an artist is essential.

"Colour is my day-long obsession, joy and torment." ~ Claude Monet

"I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way--things I had no words." ~ Georgia O'Keefe

The colour wheel is a necessary tool - not only for artists. In the course I took last week, I had such fun creating one.

For much more information that I gathered on colour, with more quotes and sites and even an artwork I created (!), check here.

C is also for collage - such fun to create. For more information, check here.

C is also for two very extraordinary Canadian artists: Alex Colville and Emily Carr. They are both so very different with very different styles.

Alex Colville is a very realistic painter, living on the East Coast..

One of my favourite paintings-"To Prince Edward Island"

For a good look at many of his artworks, check here.

For a very detailed look at his life and artwork, check here.



Emily Carr lived in Victoria, BC and is noted for her paintings of native sites.

When we were in Victoria 2 years ago, I was able to visit her house, which is now a museum and art gallery. It was quite an experience to see the home she grew up in and her artwork up close. She is a favourite of mine.

For the most comprehensive look at her life and works , check here.

Be sure to visit the other wonderful participants of ABC Wednesday here.

ABCs of Art - C is for Colour

A B Cs of ART

This week I am continuing to look at the Cs of art and the focus is colour.

We take colour for granted, yet is one of the primary tools of an artist. I found numerous websites that looked at

-the theory of colour:
http://www.colormatters.com/colortheory.html

http://www.alifetimeofcolor.com/study/g_color.html

http://www.artsconnected.org/toolkit/encyc_colorwheel.html

-symbolism in colour

http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/middle/color2.htm

-lessons in colour

http://painting.about.com/od/colourtheory/ss/color_theory.htm

http://www.wetcanvas.com/ArtSchool/Color/ColorTheory/

The following site showed a number of masterpieces with the colours used by the artsists:
http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/2007/06/20/color-inspiration-from-the-masters-of-painting/

One of my favourite sites for many art ideas is Nita Leland. She has a good section on colour and has also written an excellent book on colour.
She provides an extensive listing of books on colour and colour theory.




I wanted to create a painting where the focus was mainly on colour - the abstract expressionsists were my choice. I explored one site and loved the work of Franz Kline. His oil painting," Untitled" ( c. 1959, National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC.) drew me.






It was this piece I used for my model. I used acrylics and had such fun splashing on colour.





I will leave you with some "colour" quotes by several artists:
Colour and I are one. I am a painter." Paul Klee, 1914.
"Instead of trying to reproduce exactly what I see before me, I make more arbitary use of colour to express myself more forcefully ... To express the love of two lovers by the marriage of two complementary colours ... To express the thought of a brow by the radiance of a light tone against a dark background. To express hope by some star. Someone's passion by the radiance of the setting sun." Vincent van Gogh, 1888.
"Colour helps to express light, not the physical phenomenon, but the only light that really exists, that in the artist's brain." Henri Matisse, 1945.
Just a reminder:
I have a giveaway for my 200th + post! Check it out here.