Sunday October 19, 2014

 

Fall Fire!

 

  Fall Fire Acrylic 11"x13"4

This week Cannon explored the explosion of colors that come with our Midwestern Fall. We wanted to focus our exploration not just on the flaming leaves of the maple and oak trees but on the perennial plants that surround my little house, hydrangea, hibiscus, goose necks, and more.  Each plant offered different colors and patterns and some had seed pods that rattled. 

 

Out came the magnifier and each leaf was closely examined.  We opened seed pods to see the inner chambers and Cannon shook out the tiny round black seeds.  There were bright yellows, deep wine reds and bright oranges.  It was time for Cannon to select the colors for his palette.  The names of the colors are as exciting as the colors themselves; Naples Yellow, Cadmium Yellow Light, Yellow Oxide, Cadmium Orange, Cadmium Red Medium, Magenta Medium, Red Oxide, Burnt Siena, Burnt Umber, Metallic Gold.

 

 

 

Cannon loads his brush and puts the first energetic strokes of color on the white canvas. Once he starts his brush starts to fly over the canvas. 

 

Short, long, curving and round brush strokes are added and just like leaves falling to the forest floor they build up on his canvas.  No time for taking pictures. 

 

 

 

 

 

A break for drying aided by the hair dryer and a break for Cannon and then back to the canvas.  One of the hardest things for an artist to learn is when to stop.  Cannon always seems to know and puts down his brush and then we take a look. He has captured the colors, textures, and shapes - the movement of Fall Fire!

 

Proud Artist

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

with his assistant.

 

 

A Morning Glory Sunday
September 28, 2014

Sunday morning and the sun was waking up the morning glories over running the garden.  Their trumpet shaped blossoms matched the blue of the morning sky.  The perfect subject for Cannon’s next painting.

 

A visiting bee is looking for breakfast.

 

 

 

 

Cannon took a close look at the blossoms with his magnifying glass.  He noticed the different colors in the blooms from deep blue violet to the pale yellow throat.  He looked at the pale green heart shaped leaves and the curling tendrils of the vine.

 

 

 

 

Next it was time to select the colors to use on his canvas. We loaded his palette with the colors and he selected the large round brush.  After loading the brush with paint he began to paint.  Cannon sometimes “double loaded” his brush filling it with two or more colors letting them mix on the canvas.  He varied his brush strokes, short, long, curved. 

 

He stopped periodically and indicated he wanted the canvas turned or that it was time for a break to let one layer dry before adding more colors with different sized brushes. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To hurry the drying between layers Cannon used a hair dryer.

 

With one last detail, light green paint on a very small brush, Cannon added brush strokes indicating the winding tendrils of the morning glory vine.  Time to sit back and enjoy the results and make up a story and put together a puzzle of the USA.

Morning Glory Sunday Acrylic 11"x14"

 

 Sunday August 10, 2014

This school year we will be focusing on one of Cannon’s favorite activities – PAINTING!

Each session we will focus on some aspect of the natural world, examining specimens from our Indianapolis environs whenever possible and sometimes adding a bit of research to answer questions or get more information.  Cannon will use his favorite medium, acrylic paints. Last year he explored color mixing using the primary and secondary colors.  This year he will make his selections from his new set of paints that offer samples of 36 colors that will really expand his palette. 

 

 

 

 

This session he focused on a botanical.  A composition made up of the Surprise Lilies that make their appearance in late summer.  In spring this plant sends out large, dark green, elongated leaves that eventually wither away like the leaves from daffodils and tulips.  August is the time when the pink composite blossoms pop out of the ground almost overnight on long stems and bloom for just a few weeks.  The composition also includes a stem from a pink hydrangea and a couple of stems of pale green hydrangeas.

 

Cannon studied the flowers comparing their petals, forms and details. Then he selected a palette of pinks, a couple of greens and a violet along with white to mix tints of the colors and began painting. 

 

 

 

He used three sizes of flat brushes and independently selected his colors, loaded his brush and applied the colors with a variety of strokes.  He indicated when he wanted the heavy water color paper to be moved, additional color to be added to the palette and cleaned and blotted his brush when he changed colors.

 

 

 

Periodically he took a break to let the paint dry before adding additional layers of color.  When he was finished we sat back and reflected on the results of his efforts – an energetic impression of the flowers he studied.

It is difficult to tell where flowers end and paint begins.

 

After we cleaned up we enjoyed adding some parts to the new Captain Underpants game and putting the USA puzzle together.