Color, Color, Color Everywhere! Color Confessions of a Traveling Artist, Part II

OK, this is the part I agonize over even more than the choice which palette to take on my travels (see part I).  There are only an limited amount of watercolor wells on any given palette.  So which lucky colors will get to go with me to France?

First I start with a warm and a cool of each of the primary colors.  Here are my thoughts, starting with the yellows.  Hansa yellow medium, of course, because it is a cool yellow and plays well with cobalt and cerulean blue for great greens.  It replaced Aureolin on my palette years ago because it is not fugitive.  My warm yellow of choice is always New Gamboge.   My cool red is Permanent Rose and the cool blue is Cerulean.  My warm red is Winsor Red and the cool blue is Winsor or Phthalo blue.  Here I run into my first delimma - should I include French Ultramarine or not.  It is suppose to be the warmest of all the blues which intrigues me but I think it looks a lot like cobalt blue.  It does make great darks but then so does Phthalo blue.  It has bounced back a forth from being on my palette and then getting ousted.  Sad day for French Ultramarine Blue - it stays behind!

Which colors are always on your palette?  If you were stranded on an island, which colors would you absolutely have to have?  These are the six that I could not live without!

"Color is my day-long obsession" Color Choice Confessions of a Traveling Artist, PART I

“Color is my day-long obsession, joy and torment. To such an extent indeed that one day, finding myself at the deathbed of a woman who had been and still was very dear to me, I caught myself in the act of focusing on her temples and automatically analyzing the succession of appropriately graded colors which death was imposing on her motionless face.”   Claude Monet

My Daniel Smith Metal Palette

 

I can relate to this quote and it often runs through my head.  It was running through my head as I prepared my palette for my upcoming trip to paint poppies in Provence.  The torment is which colors to bring along and which ones will be left home!  But first I had to decide which palette to take.  My very favorite metal Daniel Smith watercolor box can hold up to 24 colors in 1/2 pans!  Or I can switch some out, and bring full pans of the colors that I use the most.  It just doesn't seem to hold enough paint for a 2 week trip with painting everyday. Sadly, I chose to not use this one.

My next favorite palette and the one I recommend to all my students.  It is the Heritage palette.   I love it because it has a lid and a gasket which lends itself very well for travel.  Also it is very affordable.  It also has a removable plastic tray that I slip a painted reference card with the colors that are on my palette.  

Heritage Brand, also know as the Mijello Fusion Air Tight Palette

My tiniest of all!

Then there is the little palette that I pull out on the airplane.  Ok, ok now you know that I am obsessive!  I can't go that long without painting!  I love painting on those long plane rides.  I mean, what else are you going to do? I bought mine in France but there are lots of adorable mini palettes out there to choose from.

 There are also some great travel brushes that will fit inside the mini palettes.  My palette came with the tiniest of brushes and I have since added a Daniel Smith travel brush.

  Do you have a favorite traveling palette?  What is important to you when you travel and paint?   Which is more important to you - the amount of paint you can bring or the variety of color? 

Next I will be blogging about how I chose the colors on my palette.

Oh the agony of it all!

The Creative Process, A Peak inside my Empty Watercolor Journal

Do you enjoy the anticipation of an upcoming vacation or trip?  Do you practice packing your suitcase with your favorite clothes?  To me the journey begins way before walking out the door, suitcase in hand.  I love preparing my art supplies for my travels.  Planning for my upcoming trip, Painting Poppies in Provence, France, I decided to take two watercolor journals.  (Two spots just opened up on this trip to Provence, so let me know if you want to join us!) One is a 14 x 10 Arches Watercolor Book with 140 pound Arches paper.  The other smaller one is a Strathmore 400 Field Watercolor Sketchbook.  For years I have had a love/hate relationship with the Strathmore field book.  Every other piece of (crappy) watercolor page alternates with a piece of drawing paper.  This drawing paper is where my mixed-media imagination soars and I have probably filled at least 10 of these journals with art from my travels.

Pages in my journal prepared for the trip

First page in my new journal with inspiring quote.

Well, this year I decided to quit complaining about the (crappy) watercolor paper and tore my Strathmore Sketchbook apart.  I kept the metal coil and the black hard covers.  I  filled it with Arches 140 paper alternating with Strathmore 400 series drawing paper.  I prepared the drawing papers with colorful backgrounds and finished the first page with an inspiring quote for my upcoming trip: "To Paint.... to travel.... the combine the two is to celebrate life"  (Jack Brouwer). 

The cover of my new "Strathmore" journal now filled with Arches watercolor paper!

Stay tuned for my upcoming article in Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine's special edition, PAGES, on how to prepare these your jouranl pages with mixed-media and watercolor.
How do you prepare for your upcoming journeys?  I would love to hear what special techniques and ideas you have!

"Spring in Central Oregon" - Featured Painting

Spring in Central Oregon, watercolor by Jacqueline Newbold

The Assistance League of Bend, Oregon picked my watercolor painting, Spring in Central Oregon as their 2011 Kitchen Kaleidoscope Fund Raiser Event featured painting.  This fun event will be June 18, 2011 and will include a tour of seven beautiful homes located in North Rim and Northwest Crossing.  The Assistance League of Bend is an all volunteer, nonprofit organization consisting of a dedicated group of women with a passion for supporting the local community. Save the date for this fun event with a such a worthy cause!

A Day in Uzes, A Peek inside my Watercolor Journal

If you are ever in the south of France, be sure to spend an afternoon in the quiet little town of Uzes.  Park your car and walk to the old town center.  There you will find a peaceful cobbled stone square with a fountain, cafes and filtered sunlight sparkling through the Plane trees.  I was lucky enough to be able to sit for awhile and capture this scene in my watercolor journal. 
I am excited to tell you that I will be teaching at the CREATE Chicago Mixed Media Retreat in August.  Registration opened today!  I will be teaching a watercolor class on how to successfully mix colors, called Rainbow Studies, as well as a mixed media class on creating interactive components in your watercolor journals - Flips, Flaps and Fold-outs.  I would love to meet some of you in person!

Featured Artist at the Red Chair Gallery

This is me (Jacqueline) in front of my new paintings.

Art Hop night in Bend, Oregon was a fun event.  It was our first warm day in months and downtown Bend was the place to be! I was honored to be the Featured Artist for the Red Chair Gallery, located on the corner of Bond and Oregon Street in the historic O'Kane building.  My paintings will be up for the month of April.

Little Color Studies

I have been finalizing my palette colors for my trip to Provence, France.  I thought I would use my color wheel and do some quick, small color studies to see if I am loving the watercolors on my travel palette.  Here are two that I worked on today.

I have to record the colors that I use because I will forget what they were.  This is a good way to make a record of your favorite color combination.  Why not start a little notebook to keep your studies in.