I am a Blogger-Come on in and Sit a Spell

Yesterday, I was in deep thought and came up with a profound comparison that I just had to share today...I was considering the differences between my website and my blog as many people don't understand and think they are the same.  It came to me that my website is like visiting and being brought into the formal living room that is reserved only for company.  The room isn't used on a daily basis and once you have it decorated just they way you like it you just go in there periodically and fluff the pillows and dust the furniture but you're not spending great deals of time in there. julietownsendstudio.com

My blog on the other hand is like the front porch.  Sitting on the swing with a big jar of fresh sweet tea waving at all the neighbors as they pass by on the sidewalk.  Maybe some of them stop at the gate and exchange weather and local gossip, while others come on up and sit a spell.  JTownsendstudios.blogspot.com

Ice cold sweet tea with a sprig of mint from my herb garden ...It is Las Vegas so remember to bring your sun hat!

A blog is personal and it is a forum to share you passion with people all over the world that for some reason took a few minutes out of their lives to stop in and pull up a chair.  We can chat about my artwork, my latest Nevada adventure or a recent lesson I have learned about composition or color.  Whatever the reason for the visit a blogger is driven to make a contact.

I am fascinated with my statistics and audience synopsis.  The fact that so many of my visitors are from far away exotic places just blows this Missouri girls mind.  I'm still remember having a high school pen pal that lived in the Philippines and how each letter took weeks to arrive at the posted destination and within minutes of me pushing the little orange PUBLISH button I have an audience thousands of miles away checking out my thoughts, musings and maybe even my artwork.  Amazing time we live in

A screen shot of my audience statistics for this week so far....Just blows me away!

Make Your Colors POP

"The road to color harmony begins with understanding the characteristics and properties of the colors on your palette-how to mix and match them so that they work for you.  You must appreciate the full potential of every color and the effect each color has on another." Margaret Kessler

I've had the book called "Color Harmony in Your Paintings" by Margaret Kessler for sometime and I know that when I first received it I flipped through the pages but up to this point I haven't really studied it.  Today I am reading through it's pages and am anticipating the information that I am going to glean from within it's covers.

I find myself underlining several great points on page 15 that deal with the topic of Intensity.  Kessler says, "The key to making your paintings 'pop' is to juxtapose bright hues against dull ones."  I think that I'm going to write this down on a note card and post it on my easel because even though during my painting lessons this has been discussed, I find that in the heat of painting these important foundational points can be neglected.  You really want an object to "POP" you need to paint the lighter values next to a darker color.  Leaves in a tree are a great example.  As you increasingly lighten the value of your leaf color you want to position the brightest leaves in areas that are surrounded by darkness.  I did this in my painting "Fallen" and the birch saplings seem to almost jump off the canvas. Lily also had me place light colors for rocks in the shadows and dark colors for the rocks in the sunlit areas.

Painting completed during my painting lessons with teacher Lily Adamczyk

Last Leaf

This concept again was used in my painting Last Leaf.  The darkness of the pine needles cause the light gold tones in the leaf to just pop off the canvas.