GPP Crusade No. 54: Mind Games -Inspired by the Iowa State Fair

I love the colors that surround me at the Iowa State Fair.  When Michelle Ward posted the August Challenge, Mind Games, I knew exactly where I would find my inspiration for the challenge.  This was a perfect chance for me to do a simple study of modern vs. traditional pigments.

Be sure to go to the GPP site to read what Michelle had to say about this challenge.

Have you ever tried mixing colors and just came up with muddy colors?  You learned in school that red + blue = violet, yellow + red = orange, and yellow + blue = green.  But it's not quite that simple.  If you mix the wrong versions of these primary colors, you will not end up with the pure colors you may have desired.
Try mixing only modern (organic) pigment colors together.  You will get pure, vibrant mixtures.
Traditional (inorganic) pigments work well together, but the mixtures will be more earthy.
Golden Artists Colors has a great reference sheet you can check out here and you can print it out for your reference. Follow this link for Golden's Organic vs. Inorganic Pigment list.

Back to the fair...

I chose the vegetable competition to provide inspiration for my Traditional (Inorganic) Color Palette (Cadmium Yellow Medium, Cadmium Red Medium and Cobalt Blue).
In addition to the primary triad, I used titanium white and ivory black.
In addition to the journal pages I've shown here, I painted entire pages with variations of the mixtures that I can use as the start of future journal entries.  I digitally extracted from those pages for the inspiration collage.

As much as I love daytime at the fair, the night holds my heart.  The midway and vendor lights are exciting against the evening sky.  Last year I discovered that the RetroCamera app on my phone takes the coolest shots at night, and I'm happy to share a few of those shots here along with my painted mixtures.

 The Modern (organic) Palette was created with Yellow Light Hansa, Phthalo Blue and Quinacridone Magenta.  Titanium white was used to create tints of the mixtures. It makes these transparent colors more opaque.  If I had wanted to retain more transparency, I would have mixed them with zinc white.

I hope you enjoyed this post.  Getting all this information compiled together was important to me and it's coming late.   Come back for the September challenge.  I'm hoping to be back on schedule. ;-)

State Fair 2011 Art and Summer Learning



"Connections" at Iowa State Fair Fine Arts Exhibit 2011

 Sunday we attended the Iowa State Fair Fine Arts reception where we got to preview the amazing art that will be on display during this year's fair.  This was the third time I've had a painting juried into this show.  It's a thrill to get the bright colored postcard in the mail and find a check marked in the accepted box.

You'll find the Fine Arts display on the first floor of the Cultural Center.  It's on the hill on the east side of the fairgrounds.  If you want to see my painting, it's located in the SW corner of the fine arts room on a half wall.  That's not an ideal place to view it.  I'd prefer it be hanging higher and with more space to step back from it to take in its subtleties and depth.  But I'm still very pleased to have a painting on display.



Swan Love

 Another hobby of mine is digital manipulations.  Even though I've been playing with them for several years, I still consider myself a novice since there are many digital tools that mystify me.
The only good thing about Borders Books going out of business is that there are some great bargains.  I found "Digital Imaging Workshop" by Rick Sammon and paid just over $2.00!  Yes, it's a bit dated since he was using PS Elements 2.0 and 3.0.  Some of my tools are different in the PSE 4.0, but I'm still benefiting from his tutorials.  Last night I randomly chose a so-so image I took a couple years ago.  I often save this quality of shot just for the purpose of painting reference.
I learned a couple of new tricks from the book and added a couple things I already had up my sleeve.  Digital magic!  I know this image still has problems.  The distant swan in blown out a bit by being over exposed.   Even so, there are still many things I like about the results and I'm encouraged to keep learning.

Reasons to Celebrate Art

My how time has flown by since my last post. In addition to working A LOT at my regular paying job, I've had some art events to celebrate.

Hubby & I went to the opening reception at the Iowa State Fair's Cultural Center on Tuesday evening. It's a special time to preview the Fine Arts exhibit before the fair openned on Thursday. Awards were distributed to winners. I was pleased to find my painting in a prominent and well-lit position this year. I enjoyed mingling with fellow artists and their families.

After the reception, we had a late dinner in the East Village area of downtown Des Moines. The Continental has plenty of atmosphere and delicious food. It was a wonderful way to celebrate.

Card Party Charm Bracelet & News

As promised, I added a few items to my Etsy store today. I will be adding more this coming week.

I also promised to make an announcement this week. Thanks for your reminders in the comments some of you left. I almost forgot my promise. My mind has been elsewhere this week. We said our final goodbye to a very dear friend who has gone on to Heaven. Our thoughts have been with her family.

So - what was I holding back on? A couple of things -

1. My painting "Golden Harvest" will be displayed at the Iowa State Fair in the Fine Arts competition. I am THRILLED! We are looking into making prints.

2. I am closing in on my 200th blog post and the 2nd anniversary of this blog. Keep your eyes on this blog for give aways in the upcoming days/weeks. I added a follower button that you can see on the right hand column. Have you signed up yet?

2008 Iowa State Fair - Something to Smile About!

The Iowa State Fair has been over for a week, but I can still smell the corn dogs, funnel cakes, cotton candy and lemonade when I look at the pictures I took.
Hubby & I attended the artists' opening reception two nights before the fair opened. He took the shot of me crouched by my painting. Honestly, it was a let-down seeing it hung so low where the lighting was poor and knowing that most viewers probably missed seeing the details. But it was an honor to have been selected to be in the show, and I am grateful.

Well, you can imagine my great surprise and tremendous joy when I was contacted by a representative of the Sanford Museum in Cherokee, Iowa. She had seen my painting at the fair and invited me to have a solo exhibit in their museum. We have arranged for my show to be in May 2009. Check out their web site. It looks like a wonderful asset to the community, and I am excited about visiting it sometime this fall.

Hubby & I spent a couple evenings at the fair. It was a treat (and big surprise) to run into hubby's brother in the barn with the biggest bull. We spent the rest of the evening hanging out with my bro-in-law and some of his colleagues.

There is SO much to see and do (eat) at the fair, and these pics are just a small morsel.






And so I say "Goodnight". Maybe we'll see you at the fair next year.