Color Intensity and Space

Casey's Palette

Intensity was my self selected assignment for the two month color study that Katherine Tyrrell has been posting about. Here is what I found out about intensity, and how it relates to the elusive color space theories.

Consider me a convert to the linear color space proposed by Da Vinci. The reasons are that the spectrum lays out in a linear fashion when you view it through a prism, and that my actual palette is arranged in a line.

Also, I understand that violet cannot be produced in the additive system except by blending, and that red violet inhabits a pole opposite blue violet on the spectrum. I know that sounds horribly brainy and hopelessly immaterial to the pastelist. Let's just say that the visual perception side of the house teaches me that light is a dominant reason for intensity in color.




Put plainly, your eye sees wavelengths at their highest meter and this represents greatest intensity. See this page about wavelengths and color. Need it plainer? See this page.

High key (more intense) blue is the peak of its wavelength, and so is high key green. I understood this intuitively before I knew the why of it, and made a special place in my palette for high key green. Later, I organized the blues by key as well.

I like Marie Meyer's use of the Munsell system as a number space, since their is a linear aspect to the numbered hues. Although the Munsell is a cylinder, I like seeing the linear description better. But, I find Munsell too abstract, and apropos to the additive people. My own color space will always be subtractive and pigment mixture based.

Bits

Jennifer Phillips - Daily Encounters With My Paint Brush

Here is a post with little bits of new things that I encountered at the Bellevue Fair last weekend. Since it is paramount that I catch up on sleep, and get reorganized here at the studio, I'll give you the random thoughts now, and coherent "lessons" later.

In the category of Art Blogs in Washington State, at the fair I was happy to meet Jennifer Phillips of Seattle who blogs here. Her tonal landscapes are a breath of fresh air. They present a living scape of trees and field's edges where you'd like to be. Beautiful works.

Also met was Deborah Burns, who blogs for art retailer Daniel Smith, of Seattle. Nothing beats a visit to this large box retailer, especially for a huge selection of paper and a fine selection of pastels. I give them kudos for their drawing department and their workshop program. Their popular catalog is a resource of art materials instruction that I have benefited from many times, and their website has much of this instructional content as well. See the new blog here, although Deborah informs me that it is in beta stage, and that she will be transferring the blog to a private server that is not blogspot. Deborah is a former store manager at DS, and an arts promoter extraordinaire in the Seattle area.

Next: Lessons learned from Michael Monroe at the ArtsFair. And, I plan to give some linkage to the pastelists who show at the fair.

Back To Blogging

Back...

The week-long absence, due to the Bellevue ArtsFair in Bellevue, WA ends here, and your regular posts will begin again. "Back in the saddle," so to speak. I will try to compose a review of my long last week for you, as soon as I can. Much was learned - perhaps more than any of the past few years of art fair participation.

I'll just mention that one of the benefits of being in these shows is the tremendous networking that gets done. I was pleased to meet many different artists, both from the patronage and the exhibitors, and I met some bloggers, too.

Of course, a little sleep-in time is also in order.

Beck's Beer Art Labels

Beck's beer has the following presser for you readers of The Colorist. I credit Beck's for seeing the value of fine artists, in their emerging years, to their libations patrons. I, for one, see the cultural link between spirits and art, don't you?

Hi Casey,
Hope that you are well. Just a quick email to send you the finalists pictures from Becks Canvas. I’ve attached a small selection of the finalist’s artwork for you. We have loads of final artwork that I can send you across but didn’t want to be responsible for crashing your outbox.
Let me know what you think?
Kind Regards,
James

Background behind Becks Canvas

Contemporary art is a living part of our cultural heritage. Encouraging raw ability and building a broader public appreciation of the diversity and excellence of artistic accomplishment is a vision which Beck’s has long supported.

To this end, we have championed talented artists without compromise for over 20 years. As a bold statement of commitment, Beck’s has given outstanding artistic talent a truly original canvas to work on. Our label. Collaboration over two decades reads like a ‘Who’s Who’ of contemporary art; Gilbert & George, Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst, Tim Head, Sam Taylor-Wood, Jake & Dino Chapman, and Tatsuo Miyajima to name but a few.

The result of these partnerships has not only been the creation of a unique library of contemporary artwork, but also providing a significant platform for emerging artists to reach a greater audience. This year we plan to take the project to a new level by literally placing contemporary artwork in the hands of the public.

2008 sees a landmark for the Beck’s art programme, with the launch of Canvas. For this very special project, we needed a very special partner. The Royal College of Art is a particular kind of ideas factory unlike any other. As the world's only wholly postgraduate university institution of art and design, the college boasts a global reputation for artistic excellence and an unrivalled creative environment. College alumni and internationally admired artists Tracey Emin, Tim Noble and the Chapman Brothers all created Beck’s labels during the 1990s. Then, as now, Beck’s was striving to support those determined to express themselves creatively. A partnership with the College presents a great opportunity to achieve this goal.

Four young artists will be selected by a panel of judges from the Royal College of Art to showcase their art on the labels of over 27 million bottles to be distributed nationwide from August 2008. The first bottles to receive the new labels will be launched at an exclusive gallery exhibition to be held at the RCA.

In the endless state of motion that is contemporary visual art some elements remain constant, but never static. Beck’s Canvas marks an evolution of our ongoing support for emerging artists and our vision to bring inspiring and challenging artwork to a broader public.

The Finalists

Riitta Ikonen

http://www.riittaikonen.com/

Riitta Ikonen, 27, is studying a two year MA in Communication Art and Design at the Royal College of Arts, graduating in June 2008.

Originally from Finland, Riitta believes the Beck’s Canvas project resonates with her own belief of taking art out of the gallery for people to see in a wider context. In her mind individualism is a little space inside your head reserved just for you, like a private restaurant table that serves you anything you think to want.

Riitta takes inspiration from ‘the performance of images, through photography and costume design. Certain things, usually small and insignificant, excite me to the point that I have to wear them and then document that process.’

Key achievements for Ritta include featuring on the cover of a ‘mail art’ book published by Lawrence King Publishing and compiled by Flat 33 (RCA Alumni). She has also been interviewed by WWF for her ‘Snowflake’ project, which was funded by the RCA and addressed climate change in the Baltic. In November 2007, Riitta was commissioned by the Tate to produce an interactive costume experience and has most recently been shortlisted for the Adobe Creative Futures 2008.

Riitta is currently still working on producing a herring costume for a dive in the Baltic Sea – another attempt at raising the awareness of climate change in the area. She is also contributing to a campaign to encourage commuters in London to interact on the underground, as well as working with the Tate’s events programme. Plans for the future include travelling around the world to create artwork that highlights local issues for charitable use, “I’d love to take my work to Japan; go to Mongolia to work hard; go to Cuba for the amazing colours and people; learn new skills and share ideas with unique people.”

Tom Price

http://www.tom-price.com/

Tom Price, 26 is an alumni of Sculpture (2006). Subsequent to this, he received a First Class BA (Hons) Sculpture from Chelsea College of Art in 2004 and currently works from his South London studio, in Brixton.

In April 2008, Price exhibited a solo presentation of his art at the NEXT Art Fair, Chicago and will also be showing work at the ‘Personal Freedom Centre’ in October during Freeze Week at the Hales Gallery. Other awards include receiving the Sir John’s Cass Bursary, which allowed him to study at the Royal College of Arts.

Price is now working on new sculptures and continues to explore different materials and formats.

Simon Cunningham

http://www.simoncunningham.com/

Simon Cunningham is an alumni of the MA Fine Art, photography course (2007) Cunningham lives and works in London.

Cunningham has sold more work than he has been able to exhibit mainly through his group shows and to private collectors. Cunningham is currently exhibiting film and photography work in Fragile at Espai Uba in Barcelona and also in Italy as part of ‘In our world’ at Galleria Civica de Modena.

Charlotte Bracegirdle

http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/yourgallery/artist_profile/Charlotte+Bracegirdle/29409.html

Charlotte Bracegirdle, 34, is an alumni of the Masters degree in painting (2006). Originally from Broardhembury, Devon, Charlotte spent seven years applying to art schools across the UK before accepting a place at the RCA.

Charlotte has previously been awarded the Davis Langdon award (2006) and was shortlisted for 2007’s New Contemporaries.

Plans for Charlotte’s future are to continue painting and exhibiting her work, she is currently working towards an exhibition for the Madame Lillies Gallery, Stoke Newington, running from 10 September 2008. Bracegirdle dreams to be an artist in residence at the National Gallery, she loves all the history in there and dreams to spend all her days painting.

Sorry to break my promise about "no advertising", but I'm giving this beer commercial a free shout-out for being really art-centric and innovative.

Bellevue Fair is Next Weekend

Thin on posts these days! With the Bellevue coming up, I am scrambling in the studio to get ready. A studio assistant is coming today to help, and so the posts will have to wait a while.

I have installed the Blogger active blogroll widget, but it is time consuming today. Please be patient if your blog doesn't show up, yet. Feel free to request a link, BTW. I will definitely consider it, but will hold to a few standards: good content; regular posting; generally fine art oriented.

Thanks for reading!

Ateler Practice

See this informative post by Bill Sharp on the Atelier disciplines. He offers you a nice list of realist art bloggers.

For Everything There is a Season____

Frau Framing: Priceless. Dog is Free to New Owner.

A time to create,

A time to frame.

Right now, we're framing. My pace in the studio is down to a crawl. There is one large extra-full sheet work on the easel, and some plein air works in a notebook, and maybe a few odd paintings to do. Otherwise, the onus is on mien frau to get the art framed and ready for the Bellevue Arts Museum ArtsFair, which is July 25 - 27.

Foreground is the Mat Cutter on the Draftsman's Table; Background is the Wooden Folding Table and Shelving Closet.

Here is a peek at the framing room in the studio trailer. It occupies what would otherwise be the main bedroom, and is at the south end of the structure. I guess it is @ 14' x 10', and is outfitted with mainly two surplus furnishings. One is an oversize wooden folding table that we got when the venerable and famous REI on Capitol Hill in Seattle closed. It is set upon a home made wooden cot, which makes the working height ideal for veteran backs.

The other big item is a metal draftsman's table which was redundant at a friend's architecture office in Tacoma. It has a massive top surface, and features a power outlet on one leg. The lovely Lorie uses the folding table for organization, her laptop which is used for archiving data, and a cutting area for miscellaneous cuts. The drafting table gets the mat cutter and frame assembly tasks. The closet holds shelving from floor to ceiling.


the walls are one big pin cushion

Because the studio structure is a dedicated building, the walls are one big pin cushion for hanging framed art, and waiting-to-be-framed originals. Lorie claims that having the ready work hanging on the walls streamlines her tasks tremendously. In framing multiple works, everything revolves around efficiency. Of course, presentation and archivality are foundational.

We actually scored quite a few furniture items at the REI closing, and the opportunist in you may seek out large building surplus events to outfit your studio. I recently missed the closing of the old Spokane Art School and will forever wonder what cool furnishings I missed out on.

On another happy note, I am grateful to Pollocksthebollocks for the Brilliante Weblog Award (Premio 2008). I will tag some new awardees in due time. I am thinking of bloggers outside of the fine art circle for this, because I love to go exploring.

Applied Science & Your Color Choices

Pastel Collecting 101

For a fun exercise in choosing new pastels, see the following posts at my blog, Pastel. Hue, Chroma & Value Chart, and Purple Pastel Secrets.

These posts at Pastel will be informing our Colour Project when I research the color property: Intensity.

Studio Spotlight

Custom Palette Table Seen in the Kitchen. Do You Have a Beer Refrigerator in Your Studio?

Too Much Sun from the West; Portable Tables, My Convertible Easel at Left, and My New Wall Easel Sitting on the Floor at Top Center.

Organizing Drawers and Table Tops.

Last week I posted on my new Studio Interior. I found these other photos from different angles, and post them now for your further enjoyment.

See other studios at Making a Mark-Art Blogs-Artists and their studios.