Ten Minutes

The weekly challenge on the Facebook group I follow was to paint something in ten minutes. Not a second more. I realized it wasn't as easy as walking up to the easel and just dumping the colors on the paper and walking away. This required planning.

Normally, I don't plan a painting on paper. I see something in my collection of photos I think I would like to paint, and try to copy the photo. When I begin, I see in my head how the painting should be, whether more or less like the photo, and trying to capture how I felt about the scene. (I have a good memory for the photos I have taken, and tend to remember the day and how I felt.)

But that's when the time is illimited. Most paintings take an hour from beginning to end. Some, I let stew overnight or over a couple of days if it simply doesn't feel right. For ten minutes, I had to have some things decided when I sat down at the easel. 

I chose a simple image of dunes on a cloudy day, which had resonated with the cloudy feelings inside me. I chose the colors I would use, and set them on the table beside the easel. I passed a white pastel pencil over the paper, delimiting the dunes, the shrubs, the distant mountain. Then, I set the timer and let 'er rip.

In ten minutes I had something, but I couldn't say I was

finished. I could do this, I discovered, but I couldn't call it a complete success. Perhaps it was just a little too large to really complete in ten minutes (24 x 16 cm), but it was a good try. I discovered I could step up to the easel with more of a game plan than I had been doing, and get results.

I think I might challenge myself in the future again. All in the name of learning!

Blue and Orange

A cool December evening in Madrid. The sun is setting and I am taking pictures. One is of the entrance to the subway against one of the Torres Kio. 

The orange competes with the reflected blue sky in the glass. I like that combination of orange and blue. 

The other day I read in Karen Margulis' blog about using Caran d'Ache Neocolor II water soluble wax pastels for the underpainting. By complete coincidence, when I visited Porto last week, I saw some sticks in an art store. I buy four. I used two in this as an underpainting. The russet color and the malachite green, a type of turquoise. I like how it turned out. I think I am learning. Slowly, but steadily.