The Limited Palette always Impresses

I picked up a photo of a young woman I had painted once upon a time and thought I'd like to explore it further. I've always absolutely loved the artwork of Toulouse Lautrec. The subject matter of the dancing show girls, the night life of the French bougousie, and the dedication of the young toulouse have always intrigued me. Looking closely at it I know he uses a lot of yellow and alizarin crimson and maybe some blue, maybe some green. So I put blobs of alizarin, Indian yellow and Ultramarine blue along with titanium white on my glass palette and using a small brush and the red I sketched her in. THis is the final result. After a while I felt like I was simply doing a value study but the limitations of color make it much easier than being overwhelmed with a full palette. It facilitated the ease of asking the simple questions that propel us around the canvas. Is this space lighter or darker, warmer or cooler. Easy peasy. I am going to continue this little exercise for a while. I find that limited palettes are kinder to the eye and the harmony is automatic.

I have now had the pleasure of selling these composition books and the response I am getting is "LOVELY" and quick shipment from amazon. They are indeed a bargain if you have amazon prime and do not have to go through the rigmarole of shipping costs etc. I am so fortunate that I always documented my paintings with as high of a resolution as I could afford. At first it was a matter of actually driving the painting an hour away to a "Lab" where they took 4 x 5 transparencies. Then we were digitizing the transparencies. After that and the driving I decided to invest in an epson art scanner which did a very good job but was limited to a 12 x 16 glass panel. I learned that I could do larger paintings by scanning the painting section by section. I then found a way to "stitch" the pieces together on photoshop and had quite a high resolution "large" file which was perfectly suitable for prints and products. I speak about "stitching" the pieces together. I did it one segment at a time and then blurred the edges with the clone stamp. HOWEVER LET ME TELL YOU ....I found out a few years back that photoshop (the most amazing editing software around) has a feature under edit called automate and merge cells which will do it automatically. GAME CHANGER! THAT is still the procedure I use but I have a 24 mp canon and I still divide the canvas into fourths or sixths and then use the camera instead of the massive scanner. I use photoshop to automate the stitching. I have large files of my favorite paintings or seminal works that were part of a series. I am loading them all onto Amazon and making the 120 page college ruled books. They are pretty elegant and hey! you don't need just one, you need many. As handy as digital notetaking and planning is, the pleasure of scanning through written pages will never be replaced. AND as you all know the act of writing things down is therapeutic for the brain and helpful for the mere process of memorization. I am so pleased with how these turned out AND the price point: Here are a few. There are many more that you will see if you search Sally Rosenbaum Disclaimer.. I receive a small commission if you click and buy.

I am having a ball publishing my vast vast collection of high resolution scans of my paintings on KDP. If you don't know what kdp is yet it's a way to self publish professional results. If you design a high resolution cover the results are stupendous. I have 20 of my paintings listed there. They are in the form of $6.99 regular school or home composition books. The quality is high and i am enjoying giving them to friends and acquaintances and making many sales. I am giving you a link to see what I mean Each of these are composition books on your amazon channel and only 7.00 I'm excited.

ON PAINTING THE SAME SUBJECT MANY TIMES

Many painters far greater than I have painted the same subject many many times. Here is the caveat: It is not the same painting. Sometimes something new is added, sometimes something is eliminated. Sometimes the palette is different; sometimes the light source is rearranged. It is the process of arting.....For me, art is a verb. It is basically for the artist and not for the buyer that we paint; that we indulge with our communion of shapes, light and pigment. I like to paint because I like to use paint, color, and shapes probably more than I like to "say" something. From the beginning of time, the question of what do I paint is the persistent voice that a painter hears. For me it is all about what can I use to hang all this color and pigment on? Sometimes it is simply wonderful to already have a tried and true subject matter so that all my attention can be focused on the joy; the color and the light. If you google my name you will see images that have grown, changed, and morphed into other images through the prism of time. How would this scene look if it were painted in the palette of the great swedish painter, Anders Zorn? How would this scene look if I toned the canvas first with napthol crimson? How would this painting look if I only used a large brush to paint it? How about a small brush, how about if it were painted on paper rather than canvas....What if I painted this tiny corner on a huge canvas? What if I used a medium that resembles the glazes of the renaissance? THIS is why I paint. This is why I coninue.

Making your environment work

So many people are creative and yet very few make a life of it. I watched a few videos from ATOMIC HABITS on youtube recently and he continually references the idea of designing your living spaces to support your desired behaviors. How brilliant....In my new home here in Long Beach I have designed my painting area to be right down the hall in the upstairs portion of the house. THe entire room is circumferenced with narrow tables (surfaces) with the easel in the corner by the window. The center area is completely taken over by flat files which not only provide storage for prints, watercolor paper, canvases etc but offer a 32 x 48 inch flat surface at waist level for stretching canvas, organizing photos and ideas and performing general preparations. I have had many many long stretches sometimes lasting weeks where I intend to paint but don't. Somehow the day goes by and I can truthfully say that other than walking the dog and eating three meals I have accomplished absolutely zilch and go to bed feeling less than content with myself. Ah but now I have cracked the code! I wake early....I love to sit in bed and look at my ipad "stuff" for an hour or so. Because I know that I will feel GREAT all day long and go to bed content with myself if I painted that day I have decided that it is the very first thing I do so there's more DAY to enjoy in my contented frame of mind. BEFORE I wash, before I brush, before I even dress.....I shuffle into my studio behind doors 12 feet down the hall where the paints are already layed out, the brushes are clean, and the paper towels are present and begin my work.. I continue with yesterday's work or begin anew. Sometimes it's one hour, sometimes it's two. At the end of the session which corresponds with my need for food and drink, I clean my palette, wash the brushes and set up for tomorrow. I then proceed to the shower and a well deserved breakfast OR lunch. I am loving this routine not only because I have artwork to show for it but the quality of my well being for the rest of the day is A+. I am free to sew, to bake, to get lost on instagram, to watch tv, to shop, to visit, to veg out....whatever......with absolutely no guilt...I love it. All this is in the context of the sale of artwork being my sole income. I designed my space to foster a behavior that I need to do.

Painting the Napa Valley Water tower

Well it's a done deal...I am moving from my quarantine bunker (haha .....tiny one bedroom apartment in the same building as my son) to a more spacious place with a yard, a DISHWASHER, and I can finally use my washer and dryer and revisit all of my STUFF that's been in storage for a year. Raise your hand if you've ever made the mistake of storing JUNK. It's just not worth the investment of over 4000.00 that it's cost me to store it so I will get it all out and again start culling out the UN NECESSARY stuff. In the meantime I am beyond excited about the new venture with youtube and filming and cameras and painting. All the paintings that I show on the youtube channel are for sale for a brief period of time here. I use squarespace and stripe and paypal. It's easy to buy; click, pay and then I ship it directly to you. I like to use frames on my work and I have used jfm frames on the east coast and www.pictureframes.com .....pay attention to shipping. If there's any free shipping that's the way to go because frames are heavy! Here's the new youtube video complete with a list of the paint colors I used to execute it. Be sure to subscribe and give me a like. I'm hoping to really make the channel grow. I want to talk a lot about the evolution of art as well and do some stories about artists I admire as well as collecting advice and display possibilities. I am working on a 30 x 40 landscape with a NAPA oak tree in the background and dry ochre grasses in the foreground. It, of course, is the typical Napa/Sonoma landscape and I love the colors and the visuals of it. I do also love the pine forests of Georgia but I haven't seen them in quite a while! My new computer arrives tomorrow with sooooo many more bells and whistles. I love bells and whistles and SPACE! This will be loaded wtih final cut pro and I will be able to use software that I haven't been able to use. My current computer is loaded with space but it's still old. It lacks a camera; the speakers are nonfunctional and the fans go on constantly. It is not worth fixing. Ah such is the digital life in 2021; new stuff every 5 to 8 years. Here's a connection to the new video. Please subscribe and click the LIKE BUTTON. It helps!!

I just went back into a painting, ( a small one)....there were some areas of disharmony that were bothering me. I used a red for some dahlias and the blue in the hydrangeas wasn't sitting well with me so I decided to use 4 colors ( two cross complements). They were alizarin crimson and sap green and then orange and transparent orange and prussian blue. I feel like harmony fell into place easily which now makes me think of simply painting a scene in white and black acyrlic. I would let it dry thoroughly and then put my four colors down with white and mix up some values and start applying them to the little black and white study. I think I would have a very charming painting. Stay tuned. I'm going to do it. I'm not sure in this case I improved it but I could see the potential and definitely some areas were improved!

 Hi Friends! Collectors! And Artists!

I just posted a new youtube video to my channel and talk about 4 ways to improve your art. THESE are for oil painters. I think they are universal to most all matters of self expression and probably if you want to get esoteric they apply to life itself.  (Soften edges, a little neutral with the bright, sometimes you can’t just tackle the subject but instead you look for the outline, finesse, group you lights and shadows). I think I could find some ways that those principles apply to life, don’t you.

I go over a lot of this in my book which is a self published book by amazon 

If you haven't joined the youtube channel you can do that here. Here I show how to paint the woman in the garden with the 4 tips on how to improve your painting

 Color Color Color

It means something in every culture. I am mesmerized by color and have sought to understand it since I was a teenager. It’s the number one factor that keeps me in pursuit of art for the rest of my life. I adore it; I am compelled to understand it, and I never tire of playing with it not only in art and colors on canvas but in fabrics, in interiors and in landscapes.  The funny thing is that the objects that appear to be a certain color are in fact missing that one color in reality and its absence reflects back on the eye of the beholder creating the color in the mind of the observer.  Nonetheless we still play with it.  And color in paint is a fairly new thing which in fact brought about the marvelous birth of impressionism. Prior works were limited to earth colors and actual gems that were ground down.  Art follows technology. When Winsor Newton in England began to develop laboratory colors and tin tubes it changed the entire trajectory of the art and the artist’s work. It’s a fact.

I made a brief little keynote presentation for youtube showing just a few ways to create harmony that is pleasant to the eye of the beholder. I hope this is meaningful to you. 

 As I get more involved with my youtube channel it makes me reflect more on the basics of painting. I find the most important things in making a painting (with the intention of selling it) are to keep in mind three or four main points and they are in order of importance DESIGN, COLOR, NARRATION AND FINALLY RENDERING. Rendering is important too but it’s basically nothing if you don’t have the first three in good standing. I painted this painting about 10 years ago and worked hard to get the color harmony and design right.  

 Watch the youtube video about the stages or progressions of this painting. I am trying to gather a following on my youtube channel where I’ll be posting twice daily and talking in depth about art decisions I make ... join me here:

How to paint a figure in the sun GIRL READING WITH RED PILLOW and be sure to leave any questions or comments here or there. I am always looking for areas of interest.  Next up color choices and get to know your mediums!

 Unify your painting with limited palette.  I painted this one with mostly three areas of the color wheel .. It’s a small one so “not exact” mostly little spots of color.  I took inspiration from the green(yellow green) area, the flesh area of warm reds and then balanced it with the opposite of those two; the purple and purple blues. You can see on the color wheel (thank you grumbacher) how the two colors at the top then from a triangle with the purple blue.  In my opinion, the three most important aspects of a painting are design, color harmony and finally rendering pretty much in that order. We’re not going for a photographic representation anymore.  THE thing that keeps me painting after 40 years is COLOR not rendering...something to keep in mind. Though rendering is fun too!  Check out the youtube talk on this painting and SUBSCRIBE to be notified of bi weekly posts! See you there

 

A QUICK POST:  WARM INTO COOL

Oil painting is the greatest. I think I would have to include pastel work into what I am about to say as well.  Here’s an example of what I am talking about.  About 2 months ago I stretched a 30 x 40 and decided to spend some time with this subject and composition.  The first painting is an oil painting and the second painting is of course the same painting but about a day later.  I was ready to quit  with the first one and then I said to myself, “remember when you used to spend a month on just one painting? What did that mean?” So I used my inner art eye that I have acquired over time from experience, reading and viewing great paintings in museums and began to focus on what I know are MY principles of oil painting

Check the edges

Be aware of what colors are next to each other and the harmony 

Think of the composition points (golden mean)

And the important one in this post which is to push color.

 By push color you wonder what I mean. I mean I start pushing warm colors (usually the opposite on the color wheel) into cool colors and vice versa, the cool into the warm and voila I think I got a much better oil painting. What do you think ? The second one is down below  and I will put that painting onto  my header.  Come back soon ....in the meantime check me out on my youtube channel.