Warming Up

Spring is here! It officially arrived about a week ago, and I’m more than ready for warmer days. During the winter we had our share of snow, ice, and bitterly cold temperatures, so spring weather feels delightful! With the arrival of the season, I’ll be able to visit our city park more often, hiking the trails there, taking photographs that I’ll later use for landscape painting, and doing a bit of sketching in the open air.

My art work is “warming up” in other ways, too, most noticeably with my palette. I’ve always been drawn to cooler colors, but in recent weeks as I’ve studied more color theory and have worked more directly with the principles I’m learning, I’m discovering that I really enjoy adding more warmth to my paintings.

“Warming up” is also related to “practice sessions”. Athletes stretch as a “warm-up” before strenuous exercise work-outs or games. Writers often “warm-up” with short little bursts of writing before settling into longer, thoughtful sessions. Musicians run through a few scales or practice pieces in order to “warm-up” for a performance. In the same way, as an artist, I enjoy doing small-scale practices to “warm-up” for larger art works.

Here is today’s warm-up, a warm spring scene with a warmer-than-usual color palette:

These warmer colors — with cool shadows — represent a new direction for me in my art. I like painting with cadmium red and cadmium yellow. I like adding a bit of transparent oxide red to warm up my whites, and I’m appreciating cerulean blue and cobalt blue for skies and sea.

Even my rocks are sporting more colors these days. It’s fun to paint scenes with warmer and bolder colors, and hopefully you’re beginning to feel at least a touch of “mood and atmosphere” in my paintings, even in these little “warm-ups”.

I liked this painting of “Flowers by the Sea”. I hope you like it!