Color Wheel

Would you believe this took seven hours to layout and paint?

At 28" x 40" and every color swatch a progression of the previous, this was pain staking. ( I almost wrote 'paintstaking!!" :-o )

As I was painting it, I realized how forgiving oil paint is for mixing color . . .or at least it seems to be so. Watercolor is more of a transparent veil of color over the paper. Mud can develop very quickly if the wrong colors are mixed. Among the morass of different tubes of paint to purchase and use, I use near 20 for watercolor painting. This color wheel uses 12. I could get away with 6 if I wanted, but watercolor has an urgency about it. Once cannot . . . .repeat: Can NOT . . .spend time mixing paint when a wash is in progress. It is very demanding and immediate. All sorts of blooms, run backs, splotches, stripes and edges develop if the painter isn't right on the delivery of paint to the surface. Oil, by its nature, is much more forgiving. I can spend 30minutes foolin round at the palette with no urgency at all. So, I only use 8 colors plus white. In neither medium do I use black . . . . that is another story . . . and with very good reason with watercolor . . .but I digress.

This is to be exibited in San Francisco at a show for teachers and students . . .and next to a large watercolor show by the CWA.

Hopefully, I will be able to use this piece as a teaching aid . . .if I get it back.

Some holiday! I got up at 5:30 to get this done today . . .so I could play golf this afternoon.

Hope your holiday was restful and full of fun.