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My weekly groups and I have done four collaborations: painted in squares by about 30 artists. They are amazing pieces of art.
Our first, Kaledoscope, was bought by the Bank of Marin for its Northgate branch.
The bank official who made the purchase enticed me with the idea that she’d like more of my art for other branches in her district. She loved the squares, but said she’d like to see what would happen if I painted them all myself.
Idea seed planted.
That was one of three threads that have come together in a project entirely new for my work.
Thread two: a photo of a Coast Live Oak I took in the Marin Watershed one spring when the lupines were in bloom – above.
Thread three: a page in a little sketchbook, done on the beach in Kauai: six triads, combinations of primary colors, each expressing a mood.
In the back of my head was the thought that if the bank wanted more of my art, I should get going on something. I had just finished a big, lovely rose commission, which had me hankering for an adventure.
My crazy left brain came up with this: divide the tree photo into 36 squares. Separate them into six groups of six, sprinkled around randomly for variety. Paint each group with one of the triads.
I needed a reason to paint it in squares. I needed to create the randomness of a group of artists, because I’m just one. I needed the outcome to be unpredictable.
But that photo! Oy! So detailed! I had no way in. So I put it through a watercolor filter in an app one of my people turned us on to, called BeFunky. Way better.
More variation was needed. In Photoshop, I divided the funkified image into the 36 squares with a little white space between them. Then I set it up so I could play with the colors in each group of six, one at a time, bringing out colors that weren’t there originally. Fun!
I was starting to get really excited.
Then came the triads. I made mini color wheels of the six from the beach. Some were flat, dull, not good. In the end I made 13 color wheels. Seven were rejected along the way.
The last step before getting out the watercolor paper was assigning the triads to the groups. The ones I chose turned out to be just a start; two got swapped along the way.
I tore an elephant sheet of heavy Arches paper, 41″ × 29″, into 36 squares, just under 6″ each. Then one Sunday, alone in the studio, I drew them out with the projector, marking each on the back with its sequential number and assigned triad. I made six packets in envelopes with the triad color wheel on the front. Inside were the six drawn out squares and a sheet of thumbnails – arranged as they would be in the final piece.
I know! This is where everyone’s heads start to spin.
But I was so jazzed! I couldn’t wait to start painting.
Next time: the painting begins, and the triads start to surprise me.