Black Friday Sale Coming Soon!

Looking to give some original artwork for Christmas?  Well check out my Etsy shop Black Friday for some great deals during the season on my artwork.

etsy.com/shop/BrennaDaileyArt

Color Theory

Fall is here with a mix of winter here and there.  Are you living in a place where winter has started before you even had your thanksgiving turkey?  Here in Kansas we had a random week of snow and now we are back to cool crisp fall air.

As we paint or create our artwork we tend to use certain colors to convey a mood or intention.  With proper knowledge of color theory those intentions become easier to illustrate.  Violets and yellows, reds and greens, and blue and oranges are as most know complimentary colors.  But use of them together in your work shows your understanding of color theory.  

I have a way for you to study color at home.  Start with one color.  I'll use a blue for my explanation, Cerulean.  Paint it on a piece of paper.  Now cut it into 2  1"x1" squares.   Set aside.  Now mix your cerulean with a little bit of green.  Paint onto a piece of paper.  Cut that now into a 4"x4" square.  Now mix some more of that cerulean with more blue.  Paint onto a piece of paper.  Cut that into a 4"x4" square.  Paste the two 4"x4" squares side by side.  Paste one of the 1"x1" squares on the blue cerulean and one on the green cerulean.  Step back and look at what you have done. 

See how the same color, cerulean, looks totally different with the two different cerulean's?  You have just done a study in color theory!  When you study the effects of a color on it's surroundings it can help you understand your artwork better and maybe even improve it that much more.  So many artists have no to little understanding of color theory and it shows in their work.  If you are going to use color, why not understand it as much as you can.  

So go out and look at the weather you are experiencing and you might just see nature's knowledge of color theory.   Or your understanding of nature's use of colors and how we developed color theory by it's example.

Palette Knife

How do you like to paint?  Do you like to use a brush, palette knife, collage, or even your fingers?  I prefer to use a palette knife.  It creates texture in a way a brush can not.  It even adds a thickness that other materials can not.

The best way to start a palette knife painting in my opinion is with a brush.  This is what is so great about painting is that you don't start with lines like a drawing but blocking in shapes instead.  Just like our eyes do when they are trying to focus on an image.  I like to start by looking at what I am about to paint and see the shapes and start from there.  I build the painting with shapes so it looks like what your eye sees but out of focus.  Next, I like to take my palette knife and add the detail but in an abstract way because that is what I prefer to accomplish in my paintings.

What is your favorite way to paint?  Please share!

Thanks again for stopping by to view my blog!

En plein air

          The weather in Kansas has dropped quite a bit, enough to keep me inside with a cup of hot cocoa and a good movie.  But, the outside is beautiful, enough to make me throw on my coat and venture outside to see what I can capture.  Are you in a place where the leaves have been turning gold, red, and orange?  Get out and do some plein air painting!

En plein air:

 is a French term that means "in the open air" and is used to describe the act of painting outdoors. 

Many artists used this technique to create some of the amazing paintings we have come to know and love.  One of my favorites is Vincent van Gogh's, Cypresses:

Cypresses

Saint-Remy, June 1889

         As we all know, Vincent van Gogh had some problems with an ear...so he was committed to an asylum.  But not to the degree of other inmates, he was free to roam the grounds.  He painted the walls that contained him until he saw the landscape beyond the walls.  There were cypress trees and olive groves, a no man's land.  

        The painting above I had the joy of seeing in Houston many years ago when it came with a touring collection from the Metropolitan Museum of Art from New York.  The paint was thick showing the many layers of paint applied and the thickness at which it was applied.  Art restorers have found bits of bugs embedded in the paint showing that when he painted this painting it was a windy day.  How great is that to know Vincent van Gogh was sitting painting en plein air on a windy day.  So what is our excuse to not venture out on a windy, cooler day and paint a masterpiece?!  So lets all grab our brushes, palette knives, pastels, or pencils and capture the world outside our walls as he did.

Sources: Van Gogh. Metzger, Rainer and Walther, Ingo F.. Taschen. 1998.

             

               Google Images

Links

Wondering what my art looks like?  Well, here are links to my Etsy shop, my website, and my twitter:

-Etsy Shop: Brenna Dailey Art
etsy.com/shop/BrennaDaileyArt

-Website
www.brennadaileyart.com

-Twitter
@brennadaileyart

Please take a peek at what my artwork looks like and please follow me on twitter to hear what I'm talking about!

What Art is to Me

Now that you know my intentions with this blog, let me tell you a little about myself.  I have a degree in art from Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas.  My degree is in painting and photography, of course, my two passions.  I currently live in Kansas with my husband and my son.  I hope that information about myself can help you understand why I have started this blog and that I do know a little something about what I am talking about.

Today, I want to talk about my favorite artist and his influence on me and hopefully your art as well.  As a child I fell in love with Impressionism.  Its beautiful and the movement and colors created a fantastic dream world I can live in.  What is impressionism?  It is a style and movement that art took after artists wanted to show movement in artwork to make it feel like the world was still moving even when it was captured in a painting.  The world is constantly moving, growing, and changing so why not capture that in a moment, in a painting.  So with that of course my favorite artist is Claude Monet.  His paintings appealed to me as a child and still do to this day.  Anytime I visit a museum that has one of his paintings I get butterflies as I study the work with intensity.  I grew up just outside of Houston, Texas so I visited the art museums there on a regular basis.  There is a Claude Monet painting there that he painted in his later years that defines art to me.

The Japanese Footbridge, 1912-15 Claude Monet

You are probably thinking, that is not the footbridge I know of...well your right.  This version he painted later in his life when his eyesight was failing.  Monet had an eye condition that made everything have a red hue to it.  Why I find this version the most fascinating is we are truly seeing through his eyes.  We are seeing the world as he saw it, red.  THAT is what art is to me.  Showing the viewer the world through the artist's eyes.  So let me show you my world through my eyes.  

Welcome to Brenna Dailey Art Blog!

I would like to welcome you to my art blog.  I want to start this blog off with a mission statement, an explanation of my purpose and goal:

This blog will serve as a tool for fellow artists or enthusiasts to learn and grow.  To further their knowledge in this complex field of interest.  This blog will provide materials, inspiration, and growth for all who desire it.  

I will keep you, my audience, informed of my progress as I grow as an artist.  I do hope with my growth you too can grow along with me. I am not a writer so please excuse any poor writing.  I will do my best to get my point across.  My true method of explaining has always been through art which I plan to provide.  I hope all who join me get something out of what I provide through this blog.  So please grab your paintbrush and join me in this journey!