Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Color Relationships

I believe that color is the favorite element of most visual artists.
It seems to directly bypass our thought process and drill right into our emotions. 


It's interesting to me that I am intensely drawn to color
but especially so in their very subtle moods.

Three

I started out in textiles as a traditional quilter 
and used mostly saturated primaries and jewel tones.
I actually had adverse physical reactions to grayed down blues or all pastel quilts. 

Encompassed
1998

Borders created from center to outer edge by: Lyric Kinard, Karen Zeher, Barbara Molnar, Jan Beasley, Amy Winsor, Mary Stone.  Quilted and embellished by Lyric Kinard

A few years into my learning process as a fine artist I went through a "brown" phase. Everything I made seemed to come out in earth tones with metallics thrown in. I haven't figured out why yet.

Three Rings
2003

Perhaps it was a factor of living in Chicago at that time
or perhaps that year's dye run just had some really great browns.

Out of the Box
2003

As I've grown as an artist I better understand my fascination with color interactions.
Masterful use of value, in any hue, attracts me as much as color by itself.
I'm still learning. Still working on stepping out of my box.
Perhaps I'm even still learning and exploring what the box is.
It is such a fascinating world, so full of wonder. 
Trying to capture those feelings, those visions, those emotions.
What an amazing life-long venture.

4 comments:

LoieJ said...

Color is what drew me to quilting. I'd sewn since junior high, but nothing creative until I started experimenting with some pictorial applique in about 1982 when I had no knowledge of quilting.

My first quilting book was Color the Quilter's Guide, by Christine Barnes (1997) and the book still speaks to me.

I was constantly invited by a friend who teaches quilting to take a class from her, but I rebelled against the idea that we would all do the same pattern and get the same result. But when I finally took the class, I discovered that even the same traditional patterns were greatly altered by color choice, so they become partially our own. {And that is why I don't buy kits. They would not be my own.]

Shortly thereafter, I never again followed a pattern exactly, and soon I was just making stuff up as I went. Some of it is artistic, some, well, not so much.

Jeannie said...

Color and texture. I can't not walk down an aisle of textiles of any sort or a garden center without stopping to pet a leave or touch a piece of fabric, yarn, clothing - the more texture, the better. I really like the pear color wheel and the out of the box quilt. I still have a love affair with brown. Have a great day.

Lisa Chin said...

I love the pear color wheel! During the time when all that seemed to be available were calicos I was drawn to Amish quilts - the bright beautiful solids mixed with blacks, blues or brown. I am so grateful for the bright colors we have in fabric today and that I am learning how to dye.

Deborah Younglao, Silk Painter said...

Aaah color. Nothing like it! Although I paint mostly in bright tones I'm very drawn to more subdued ones, like in your "Three". That's a great palette. Working with transparent dyes, I get the most delicious and varied neutrals. Have never done a whole painting with neutrals though - gotta try it!