Feast for the Eyes at Mint Hill Arts Gallery Opening of Fire and Fiber

The annual MHA fiber show has been expanded to include pottery and many kinds of fiber art including clothing, felting and quilts of many varieties. In turning in my art for the exhibition, I got to see some of the other art and it is a delicious feast for the eyes.

Opening reception is tonight from 7-9 at Mint Hill Arts, Mint Hill NC. The gallery is open from 11- 3 every day from Tuesday through Saturday.

This exciting exhibition will run through February 3. Hope you can come see it. The receptions at MHA are terrific. Lots of food, wine and lovers of art - a hard to beat combination. Hope to see you there.

The photo above is a detail of Orchid Rhythms: Stems that is featured on the exhibition postcard.

Nancy

Creating Depth in a Quilt - Part II

My second choice in creating a quilt, is to choose the fabric that will go with the design. I use hand-dyed fabrics from Heide Stoll-Weber for their subtlety. This piece was cut from a larger meter of fabric. Getting the courage to cut into her luscious fabric was one of the big challenges for me.

I choose this piece of fabric for the fall leaf color at the top that will imply additional leaves in the background. And the warm pink tones at the bottom will hint at the red rose hips. I also like the light area that will allow me some clear colors on the rose hips.

Next I begin choosing colors for the design. Given how well this piece of fabric conveys the season and mood that feels right, I will go with natural colors.

Nancy

Color-aid -- A Terrific Art Tool

Today, my box of Color-Aid papers is my most important tool for understanding and solving specific color quandaries. While the Color-Aid sets come in many different configurations at many different price points, from small color chips to full sheets of color, my set consists of 314 colors that are 3 x 4.5 inches.

You can see the box of papers and a small section of these color chips in the photo on the right. Notice that some of the colors - Yellow and Green- are bright with no hint of white or black. These are fully saturated hues. Then for yellow and green there are several color chips with different degrees of white in them. The oranges are mainly tints with some pastels (tones)- with both black and white mixed in with the hue.

What is so useful about the Color Aid papers is that for each hue there are systematic tints, shades and tones of the colors and the colors used to mix the color are named on the back. For instance, R-T2= red, tint two. Which means that the color is the second lightest tint of red. And another example is : YGw-P4-1. This is a tone or pastel that is four shades of darkness, one level of tint, and a warm yellow-green. Please note that these are just a small sample of the yellows, greens and oranges in the box.


While this system may initially seem complicated, it is easy to use. I frequently consult the papers to determine an existing color that is beyond what my eye can understand to check what hue, and amount of black and or white make up the color. For instance, I was trying to duplicate the color of ripe persimmons and could not figure out what colors to use. I went through the pack of color papers and found the closest color chip. Low and behold it was a pastel (tone) of red. The combination of black and white with the red was fooling me.


I often work with complementary colors (opposites on the color wheel), and I could not figure out the complement until I could figure out the original. Other special effects can be achieved by putting different colors next to each other. Joen Wolfrom's book elaborates on some of these. Working with the pack of color chips makes the choices to achieve special effects much easier.


Your local art store may have these available or you can contact: Color Aid Corp. 38 Lafayette St. Hudson Falls, NY 12839 9212)673-500

Dear Reader, please let me know if this review has been helpful.
This concludes my review of books and tools that I use on color.

My next series will be on depth perception for both the realistic artist and the abstract artist.

Thanks for reading.

Nancy

SAQA "This is a Quilt!"

Happy New Year to all!!


Last November I had the opportunity to collect specimens for upcoming quilts. I plan on blogging on the process of creating a small, 9 x 9 inch piece for the Studio Art Quilt Associates exhibition, "This is a Quilt!".


Each of the pieces will be matted to a 8 x 8" opening and put into a traveling trunk show to demonstrate what is being done with quilts today.


This a photograph I took of a specimen of rose hips and some distressed leaves. Note the one undeveloped rose hip nestled close to the upper leaves.



Below is the design that I have created on freezer paper. I cropped closely to make it more dynamic and to produce the square format required for the exhibition. I will cut templates from the freezer paper to allow me to apply the design on fabric with inks.



I will post progress on the piece as I work. Please let me know if you find this interesting.

One of the first issues that I need to identify is what elements of the design need to come forward and what elements need to recede. This helps with choosing colors, and specifically in determining value and warmth or coolness of colors chosen. We will look at my choices next time.

First of all, the red hips are round with some wrinkles on them with dark centers.
One hip is in front of the other and is throwing a shadow on the hip behind.
The undeveloped hip's stem is in front of the stems for the other hips.
The three leaves at the top overlap each other, so the front leaf will need to come forward and the smaller middle leaf will have to drop behind the other two.
And there will need to be clarity in the leaf combinations on the upper left.
The undeveloped hip has a folded leaf on the front side of it, that will need to show the fold.

I have some challenges in front of me. I hope you will keep tuned to see how I resolve some of these issues - or if I can.

Happy quilting!!

Nancy

Update: Alternative Color Wheel Options

Turns out that my color wheel is so old that it is not available. Of course, the tool is so useful that a variety of newer ones are available. A little Google researching turned up a variety that are available. Here is one resource. http://www.softexpressions.com/software/notions/colorwheel.html#col

I liked the Rainbow color wheel a lot for selecting fabrics and identifying colors in a fabric. And I think I made get the shaded color wheel. Often the shaded colors are the ones I find the most difficult to identify. Don't know if this difficulty is the result of my aging eyes, or a lack of good color sense, or I am still learning. Hope it is the latter.

If you look down on the linked page, you will several options, including options for aid in mixing colors. Your local art supply and quilting shops are good places to look for color wheels.

Thanks for reading, and my next post will be on Color-Aids one of the best tools that I have for complex color decisions. And they are still available.

Nancy

The Color Wheel - Kept Close at Hand

This simple color wheel is my most used tool for selecting colors. I often work with shades and tints of tertiary (mixture of secondary and primary colors, like yellow orange) colors so finding the complementary color can be a bit of a challenge.

Please note, I have no interest in the sales of any of the books or tools that I am reviewing. They are simply my personal experiences.

This structure of this color wheel makes all the difference. It is easy to find the color wanted with the structure here. There are three rings on the wheel that can be moved separately. The top blue ring can be moved to the Key Color. In this first example it is on the tertiary color -- Red Orange. In the second example it is on red as the Key Color. This top ring also indicates the colors that will blend with the Key Color are the two colors to each side. The complementary or contrast color is directly opposite the Key Color.

I often work in complementary colors, so that relationship is very important to me. Other artists like to work in a more sophisticated palette of triadic colors and they are indicated here as well.

The second ring is white and has twelve smaller rings of the primary, secondary and tertiary colors (hues) with tints and shades for each of these hues on the smaller rings. Each small ring has a hole in the center. Tints are a hue with some white mixed in. Shades are a hue with some black mixed in.

The bottom ring has one hole in it that can be lined up with one of the smaller rings on the second circle. Instructions for using the color wheel are on the back of the bottom ring.



Notice in the bottom color wheel that the Key Color is now red and there is a piece of fabric exposed in the opening. The open hole can be moved so that the fabric lines up with the closest color.

In this case, none of the colors is perfect, but we can see that it is a cool (bluish) tone of red. That is it has both black and white mixed with the red and perhaps a wee touch of blue. We can also observe that the complementary color is green.

I find that I am often surprised by shades and tones, they will fool me as to the hue they spring from. This little tool really helps.

You can find this specific tool at many quilt shops and shows; similar color wheels can be found at your local art supply store.

Dear Reader, Hope this has been helpful. Please let me know if it has or if you have any questions.

Next time I will review Color Aids, an artist tool that I find really valuable when the color wheel does not quite do the job.
Thanks for reading.


Nancy

PS Turns out that this color wheel is no longer available. A similar one is available that has larger peak holes and a rectangular display of each of the colors and their tints and shades. I will post a link for this one in my next blog posting. Thanks for reading.

Mixing Colors Like a Pro

This is the third in the series of books on color. Betty Edward's color book, published in 2004, was a real break through for me in understanding how to mix colors to get what I want. Using language as simply as in her earlier books on drawing, she explains the concepts and importance of value and how colors relate to one another.



Her color wheel includes tertiary colors as well as the primary and secondary colors. Just learning that in order to mix colors you must first name them in terms of their hue, value and intensity was a real lesson that helped clarify a lot for me.



With a few key supplies, you can move through a number of exercises that build skills and your eye as you work through them. This is definitely a book whose exercises are worthwhile actually doing instead of simply reading them.



Edwards has some sophisticated exercises that are very useful using patterned fabric as a basis for mixing colors. In the first exercise in this chapter you start with a snippet of the patterned fabric, and you mix colors to match the fabric. The remaining exercises demonstrate how you can create many different color harmonies while making creative color and value changes.


Beginning quilters are often taught to find a patterned fabric with colors they love and then use the colors in the same proportions to create a quilt. This simple instruction has led to some great quilts with glorious color. This chapter lets you begin with that special fabric and then create many different combinations, all of which will be harmonious. Could be an interesting way to create a series based on different color harmonies.


The final chapter, like Quiller's book reviewed last time, is on master artists and their use of color. Here the emphasis is on the meaning and symbolism of color.


This is a book that could be useful to new quilters and experienced ones alike. If you have not made an in-depth study of color, the exercises in this book may well help develop your color comfort.


Dear Reader, thanks for your attention and the great feedback I have had to this series. My next postings will be on a couple of tools that I frequently use in color selections. Please let me know if these postings have been helpful and interesting.

Susan asked that I give the ISBN numbers for the books. Great suggestion, so here are the numbers:

The Magical Effects of Color, ISBN 0-914881-53-1
Color Choices, ISBN 0-8230-0696-4
Color, ISBN1-58542-199-5

Thanks for reading,

Nancy