Tuesday, August 4, 2015

My New FWB: Favorite Watercolor Book

I'm been making little gifts of dried lavender that I got 
from the local Glendarragh farm & the shop in Camden. 
Purple, violet, plum, lavender, 
periwinkle, mauve magenta 
& crimson hues are calling to me. 
Over the years so many 
of my young girl art students 
chose them as favorite palettes, 
& not just on Valentine's Day.
Such beautiful palettes in Mimi Robinson's book,
Local Color: Seeing Place Through Watercolor
Influenced by Josef Alber's work showing color relationships,
 & realizing how much she enjoyed painting color tests before painting subjects, she started using palettes 
in & of themselves as a form of visual journaling. 
 The  book is meant to be instructional, 
but it is beautiful in its own right between her photos, 
the palettes & her representational paintings.
So many watercolor books have overlapping information, 
so I rarely buy them anymore. 
But this book is unique & a pleasant addition to my collection.

8 comments:

  1. I haven't bought a watercolor book (or any art book, for that matter) in a long time. But I do enjoy flipping through them on occasion. Speaking of watercolor, I did do a little project the other day. I wanted to print a Bible passage for my daughter to bring with her to college, so I did a background with my watercolor pencils and printed the passage on it. I did a little doodling to finish it off. Turned out quite pretty, though I don't have a photo to show you.

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  2. It does look like a good book..I had Googled it when you mentioned it..I was waiting for Creative Girl..it arrived today..
    Always nice a new book that teaches..lovely lavender and colours Rita.

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  3. Loved your shades of lavender painted on your card. and that book sounds like a must have, I'll take a look at it.

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  4. This looks like a book right up my alley. I enjoy making color charts when I start a new sketchbook or try out new paints. I find it soothing to the soul, and a stress-fress way to put the first marks in a new sketchbook. Thanks for the review.

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  5. Rita -- Color can emote such diverse feelings to indivuduals. From your recommended book, I take it that much like the world of quilts one can influence an inner spirit through designing with color. As an example a Gees Bend quilt expressing a dynamic flow of color and design. I will look over your Local Color: Seeing Place Through Watercolor and perhaps secure it for a place on my book shelf. Thanks for the book recommendation.-- thanks -- barbara

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  6. *Looked for you painting yesterday. There 11-12. Where did you guys set up?

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  7. Love the reminder to try those palettes . . . xx

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