Wednesday, January 7, 2009

we all live in a submarine submarine...?


This past summer I had an idea for an art project. I wanted to see how trying to mix the same color would change from day to day. I bought 30 4x4 canvases from Blick's and decided January would be the month to start. I browsed the paint chips at Menards and picked a color called "Submarine"- though I have never seen a submarine this color- I think I am stuck in the stereo typical yellow submarine, anyways...
Starting January 1st I sat down in my little make shift studio in the spare bedroom in our basement with my paint chip and small canvas. I limit myself to 20 minutes to mix because really if I didn't, I could be down there all day trying to get the color just right. I mixed until I felt I had the closest possible match I could mix and painted the entire canvas. I write down in my notebook the date, time I start and location (seeing that eventually I will be back at school) and I also write down all the colors of paint I use. Then the next day I do the same thing- only looking at the paint chip and not the previous painted canvas- so in the end I will see how my viewing the same color everyday changed.
I have been experimenting a lot with my color choice. I am able to remember from the day before the majority of paint colors I used so I try to use something different. Today, Jan 7th, day 7 of painting was by far the BEST! It was so exciting because when I lifted my palette knife to the paint chip I was so excited because I knew...this was the best day yet! I had taken a totally different approach by first mixing an orange then adding aqua to make it green- I think by doing this it is going to expand my knowledge of color and mixing paints. I have to remind myself to really look at the paint chip each day and not just go off of memory and from that I am starting to see this little submarine better than the day before. It kind of reminds me of drawing- we need to really LOOK at our subject to see what is ACTUALLY there and not what we THINK is there. Huh- this is most likely a good thing to apply to life-

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