Diana Trout's blog

Rainbows

Nothing beats a rainbow on a February Monday. 

This past weekend was the first one that I felt well enough to have fun and I had plenty of it. The trick to February, I think, is to bundle up and get out.

 

 

 Here's another beautiful rainbow. 

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Color of the Year~Marsala

I look forward to Pantone's Color of the Year every year. This year it's Marsala.

It didn't thrill me until I began to work with it.

You can mix the color using any red and brown (such as quinacridone red and burnt umber). It looks great with silver, gold and brights.

Marsala is a sophisticated neutral. 

It's a blast from the past too. So there's THAT.

The real Marsala is duller like this ...

Go play!

ArtEscape

Last night was my final ArtEscape program at my local library. I love the above photo! That table was hard at work but laughing and sharing their discoveries. All the kids do this. There is a easy joy in their artmaking. 

Last night I read When Pigasso Met Mootise which was a huge hit. As the kids were coming into the room, I was showing them Picasso's and Matisse's artwork and there was a lot of talk about lines and shapes: organic and geometric. 

Oh! We had fun. Laying on the crayons, thick and fast. The wetting papers and laying on Spectra Art Tissue (see video below) and letting the colors bleed (ha! the boys LOVE that word). 

Parents are always interested in what we are doing and happy to see their kids having such a blast. I do try to teach them an art concept along the way but my mission is to give them first-hand experience of how much joy there in making marks and colors everywhere.  

I wish we could have ArtEscape for adults. Well. I guess I can! Sounds like a Meetup to me.

PS: I gave my two teenaged volunteers to join in the fun :) Don't tell 

In case you didn't catch the Bleeding Art Tissue vid a couple of weeks ago 

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Light painted atop a crushed berry wall

Mia

Later

I hope you all have a fab weekend. We are having dear friends visit and taking them to the Mt Airy Art Garage quilt show tonight and to the Philadelphia Flower Show tomorrow. I'm sandwiching in a few fun days between projects (and what sounds like another big snow storm). Celebrate the last of February's dreary march of days.

And Speaking of Spring ...

Splashing with colors marching right across the palette and the page with an overlay of juicy brush pen. A bit of stamping with handcarved and washi tape. Why not?

Some Pitt Pen. A loose arm. Not being careful but careless, without a care in the world. In my watercolor Moleskine. I like that book. Go ahead and paint some flowers. No need to overthink. They don't.

plaid and flowers

hi friends. i'm still here bubbling up a bit. typing is not so great

i'll be posting mostly pictures. plaid backgrounds are fun. 

i have made up a much better story about how i hurt my hand involving a bar fight, a motorcycle gang and a fake tattoo mustache. 

Yellow

Next Tuesday I go in for hand surgery. I'll be splinted for one week and then the nerve damage should begin to repair itself.

The feeling should be completely back in about a year. The last three weeks have been very upside down.

In the midst of all of the sickness and injury, my daughter and her husband (I still smile when I say that) moved to Chicago. Lots of chaos but they are settling in. 

I'm thinking Yellow right now and Gray. Monochromatic (what?!). Yes. I am going to try some monochrome and see where it leads me. I need a little challenge and excitement to get me through. I had to cancel my Little Bird stitch class (heartbreak) but it will be rescheduled. I'll get up again. 

Golden West

Eucalyptus. Yes.

Just lying there on the ground under its tree in San Francisco's Presidio. The husband noticed it in the dark, after dinner, Saturday night. I climbed the fence. Of course I did. 

I couldn't see the colors so it was a glorious surpise when we got back to our hotel. My goodness. 

Adventures: things both odd and funny happen as I stumble about in my usual way but jet-lagged magnifies things which is only a problem if you find it problematic. I did find Britex Fabrics. Holy Cr*p. Small precious bits of pricey fabrics:

 

Sharpening Vision

This color studies are from Sharon B's online sketchbook class. I was very happy to get into this class. You may think it's funny that I would take a class like this but there were some new ideas and loads of ideas that I'd forgotten.

This floss matching study was time consuming but really worthwhile to see how many colors appeared in the mixing of a primary triad (red, yellow, blue). I could feel my eyes sharpening up as I sorted through the floss colors.

This is academic art. It's not easy but is incredibly satisfying. I take classes because it's good to challenge myself and keep my eyes sharp.

I found a little sketch in one of my piles and had some fun looking for the main colors and then the floss colors. I'm mixing and matching Sharon's exercises and making up some of my own. The class is over and I now have over 120 pages in pdf's so I can take my time and explore.