Meek Gray

I'm a colorist. I love sassy, saturated colors that bounce and vibrate on the page. Give me a loud purple, a brassy orange or a lush yellow-green any day. But last fall I recognized that my palette lacked neutral colors, and not long after that my friend Maggie Price came out with a lovely selection of gray pastels made by Terry Ludwig, the Essential Grays. The name started me thinking...are grays essential?

I can't deny that grays have an important role to play. Too many sassy, brassy, bouncing colors on one page and all you have is chaos. None of them look good--it becomes a 'look at me' competition that no one wins. If all I use is purple, orange and yellow-green I have a garish, blatant color scheme that's actually offensive. Neutral grays become the support system that lets each color have its proper place and function. I use them in my paintings to make colors look wonderful!

And then it suddenly hit me. For years I've been teaching that value is a basic property of color. The darkness or lightness of any color underlies its chroma (hue), which is what gives us the freedom to utilize any color in a given location, as long as it's of the proper value or tone. "Color gets the credit while value does the work," as you've likely heard said. You can substitute the word 'gray' in that sentence, since light and dark are usually expressed in grayscale. "Color gets all the credit while gray does all of the work." Grays really are essential! They underlie all color.

Stay with me here. Let me take a little side trip and then I'll explain what hit me.

How do you make a gray? Most of us know we can mix black and white (dark and light) to get gray, but we can also gray down a color by adding its complement. Red grays green. Blue grays orange. Yellow grays purple. And vice versa, of course. In addition to that, I've discovered that I can mix a very pleasant set of grays using a triad of pastels. I put down green, lavender and peach, and arrive at a gray that I love, which I often use for clouds (see the painting above). That gray is thus made of: green (yellow+blue), purple (blue+red), and orange (red + yellow). Every color in the spectrum is there! This makes perfect sense, when you think of it, because value underlies all color...

What hit me? Well, I was studying 1 Peter 3 this morning, unpacking the meaning of the words in verses 3-4: Your adornment must not be merely external--braiding the hair, and wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses; but let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God. I looked up the meaning of the word 'gentle' and discovered in the original Greek it means 'meek'. I'm not good at meekness. It's tough for me not to dispute or resist things. I often chafe under God's hand, not remaining patient and submissive to Him. I learn things the hard way. Yet this gentle quietness of spirit is what God finds precious. Why? I asked God why being meek is so precious to Him and it hit me: it's like a good gray. It contains all the colors of the rainbow, and thus allows every other color to rest on or next to it and look good. Gray is meek.

I desire to be a useful gray in Jesus's hand, a support to others, one that makes your colors shine when you come near. I've had my day of being the purple, orange and yellow-green, and God has used each of those aspects to make me what I am today. But I'm no longer just one color, I'm a mixture in His hands, and I'm slowly becoming a beautiful, meek gray that He can use to glorify Himself.

...On those days when I don't resist and chafe, but submit to His gentle touch, that is. I'm a gray that's still being mixed, I guess.

Blue's Weight, gouache on Somerset Black Velvet

3" x 1 5/8" (image size)

Sparkle, gouache on Somerset Black Velvet

3" x 1 1/4" (image size)

More gouache paintings. I'm having too much fun painting at the dining room table to stop! It's so satisfying to see the colors swirl together, as I did in the second one, using a wet-in-wet technique to start with, and then adding more opaque layers on top as I lighten and brighten the colors. This medium is very nice. I love the flat colors when it's dry, like the paint version of pastels. And working this small is fun, too, because they don't take long and they don't cost much to produce, so I feel as if I can practice more.

All in all, a good start to the New Year!

What do tests accomplish?

Ever been through a test? I'm not talking about the tests that you took in school, I'm talking about a live-it-out test from the Lord. Tests come in all forms, and often overlap in the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual realms.

I'm going through a test right now. I spend so much time painting that the Lord ties the two together for me. One bit of advice I usually give my students is not to rush over the rough parts, but to stop and consider HOW you might solve a problem. This gives you a chance to consider various solutions. When painting, you're in the driver's seat, of course. In life you're not--at least you're not if you've offered yourself to the Lord as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1), as I have. God is the driver. So how do the two compare?

This way: when you get to a place in your painting or your life where you don't quite know how to handle things, don't willy-nilly rush through it fearfully, just trying to erase the bad or uncomfortable or embarrassing parts, but take the time to consider carefully the situation and the REAL solution.

It's so easy to auto-focus on the problem in a painting. I used to find the problem and scrub out the offending part as quickly as I could get it out of there, or, conversely, spend more time massaging what was already beautiful in order to ignore the problem, putting off working on that one part. I've discovered that if I will simply stop, take my painting off the easel away from the pastels, and spend time ON the problem, the solution that comes is not only helpful to the painting, it becomes a tool I have at hand in considering the next problem of its kind.

When I come to a rough patch in life my instinct is to duck my head and lean into the pressure, to pull harder and try to fix things myself, which usually involves either making more money (as if money mends everything) or filling my mind with things that distract me from my troubles (as if by not thinking, things will be better.) Now, as I go through this trial, I know the Lord is urging me to treat it the same way I do a painting. Take the time to consider what's there and think back to the times I've been here before.

Oh, the solution isn't in my power, as it is when I'm painting, but the way to arrive at a peaceful place is exactly the same. Don't try to scrub out the offending parts. Don't massage the places that are working as a means of distraction. Stop. Take time to consider what has worked before...or in this case, WHO has worked before. I can't tell you how many times the Lord has proved Himself to me, providing exactly what I need at the perfect time. And I have some powerful promises for the future from Him, too. The past looks good. The future looks better.

So this time is no different. I'm drawn to Peter's advice. "There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world."

He's the Artist. I choose to trust Him for the outcome. Thanks for your prayers!

Oh--and don't scrub out that offending part of your painting so fast. Take time, think it through. That way, when you find the solution, you have something you can really rely on for the future.

Chamisa in Gouache-- Dark and Light

Dark Chamisa, image 2 3/4" x 2 3/8", on Somerset Black Velvet paper

Light Chamisa, image 2 3/4" x 3 3/4", on 100 lb. drawing paper

These aren't identical--that would just be too boring! However, I thought I'd use the same photograph for inspiration and see what happened on the dark and light paper.

Which do you prefer and why?

All of the little gouaches are available for sale for a mere $20 plus shipping, so it you see one you want, let me know. You can e-mail me at deb@deborahsecor.com

Hope you like them! I'm sure having fun...

Two More Gouache Paintings

This one is done in gouache on Somerset Black Velvet, which is a paper primarily used for printmaking but which I've used for my pastels. I really like the way it behaves with the gouache on it! I painted this one before and it's interesting to compare the two versions of it. I added a close-up for you so you can see the strokes and colors. Fun stuff!

Storm 2, image size: ~3x4.5"

And this one is a fun study of the way my garden in the mountain looked in summertime. I had a blast figuring out how to make the silhouette colors work. This is gouache on sketch paper.

Silhouette: image size: ~ 3x4"

I'd love to hear what you think. These are still so new to me.

My critique of the changing roads...

In my previous blog post on the three roads I promised to post my own thoughts on how I would change things and why. My challenge to you was to study the three road drawings (actually one drawing that I changed three times) and decide which you thought was most effective and WHY. I suggested you pay attention to the area of greatest interest, the shapes, and your visual path through the whole composition.

1. before:

1. after:
I took the color out of this to simplify the process of playing with it! I decided that the area of greatest interest was the curving road off to the side, so I decided to emphasize it more by adding a taller, darker tree there, and removing the one on the far left side that was too visually attractive. The new tree gave me a chance to add an interesting shadow, too, another attractive element. Then I decided to add more light and texture to the foreground road and lighten the entire foreground plane slightly, too. I balanced it by lightening the sky.

I then needed a shape that would balance things back to the right side, and extending the road through the trees and up the hill in the middle distance seemed to do it. This leads the eye near the two mountain peaks, which echo the two tree (a nice repetition that isn't too self-conscious), resulting in a movement from front right to top left that pleases me.

2. before:

2. after:I decided it needed to be a highway and a snowy one at that! I simplified the foreground into one plane, to keep the sweep of the roadway simple, then darkened it and added the stripes for pizzazz and drama. When I added the big tree on the left and made the slope go higher on that side, I knew the middle line of trees had to go completely to make room for the road to curve into the middle distance. The lighted slope there served to keep you in the picture plane, not pushed off by the road, while the little tree dots seemed like a nice way to keep the eye moving back and around. Now my eye is drawn to the blacktop and snow more than anything, but there is still a nice movement.

3. before: 3. after:

My thought on this one was that I really liked the road itself, its central position and the tree to its left. I wanted to get more light into it, so I enhanced the shadow, and added lights and mediums to the two foreground trees, as well as considerably lightening the sky. The added attraction is that mid-ground darkened with the trees, however. Why? Well, I wanted to show the light on the top of the tree and there's nothing like dark to make the light shine! I think maybe I should have also lightened the grasses around the tree on the left, but I'll leave that to your imagination! The movement is straight down the center, but the shadow catches your eye and the dark stops it there...

These are really just other ways to do this, not necessarily right or wrong ways, you know! I like drama, as you can tell, and I achieve it through the use of values and shapes. Where the darkest dark and lightest light come closest together is usually the most compelling area, so use that to draw the eye and start the journey. Then use the shapes to further motivate things.

I hope you found this interesting, and I'd love to know what you think. Just my humble opinion, as always!

More Gouache Paintings

Three more of the little gouache studies. I'm just having so much fun with this medium! Yesterday I bought 9 colors of M. Graham gouache, which is much richer and creamier than the pan set I've been using. I like the way I can create opaque or transparent passages. I'm still using the Sharpies for lines, but now I wonder if that won't change. Not sure.

My friend Kat Wilson suggested using the Somerset Black Velvet for these. I'm going to give it a try and see what happens now that I have some paint with 'oomph' to it! If I can just learn how to make this stuff behave, loosely, I'll be a happy artist.

These little studies are available for sale. I cut the image outside the black lines to square it up, then mount it on some colored paper and ship it on a piece of mat board in one of my ClearBags. Let me know if you're interested.

First Gouache Studies

Something NEW! I'm playing with gouache (say gwash), which is opaque watercolor. Boy, do I have a lot to learn! But I'm having fun.

These are all tiny, maybe in the 2x3" range. The white paper is just a sketch pad, 100 lb. paper , and the colored pieces are on construction paper. Now, don't laugh! I said it was for fun.

Elsie's Road Series... The road KEEPS changing!

Elsie sent me her versions of the roads along with some comments. I found her thoughts and 'visual thinking' fascinating!

See what you think:

On these three I just took out the 2 bushes one at a time, and then the "naked" view with all the bushes of the foreground out. It is not so big a deal, except for the impact on one's thoughts as each is taken out. I really realized how important the bushes were. Photoshop as a composition tool is really great! I find myself using it more and more. In pastel, we have the option of being able to brush out an element and then make a change. In my watercolor painting that just can't happen as easily. Thus being able to quickly try out things is helpful there. I guess that is one reason I love pastel so much, it is so forgiving as well as being so direct: hand to pastel to paper.

Again (below), I'm just taking out the bushes one at a time to experience the impact each makes. Then the ones on road three.

Very interesting, Elsie! It really does open things up, doesn't it?

I appreciate everyone becoming involved here... Keep up the good work!

Should the Yellow Brag...?

I sit down each morning to study the Bible. It's a time of quiet communion with the Lord Jesus. Most mornings I smile and pray and get on with my work, whether it's cleaning up the kitchen and making the bed, or planning a class and writing my book. But today...well, today was a show stopper.

Today I studied Romans 15:17-18. Naturally I had to look at this in context, so I can't say it was just those verses, but that's where it started. It reads:

Therefore in Christ Jesus I have found reason for boasting in things pertaining to God. For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me...

The writer, the apostle Paul, is pointing out that he can only brag about what Jesus has done through him, not about what he has done for God. That emphasis really got my attention.

It's not about my service, not even if what I'm doing is right or good or important or holy. It's not about my success as an artist, not about how I serve at church, not about my home--not about MY anything. I'm merely the tool Jesus uses sometimes to do things.

I thought about the pastels I use. They're tools that I pick up to make a painting. I have a lot of pastels, each one a slightly different color. I love every one of those colors! They make the painting--but just because I love them and used them to make it, do they have bragging rights?

Would it be right for that yellow on the wall to say, "Look! I'm the perfect color for a wall in sunlight. Deborah used me to do that. It's a privilege"? No, it has no right to brag about the painting. It didn't make it. In fact, it could really only understand the little part it plays, not the total painting.

I know the metaphor is a bit inept and breaks down, but it helped me to see that I need to do what Christ empowers me to do and not become focused on my little part in it. I love my work. I enjoy being an artist, taking care of my home, serving my church. But what brings me to my knees is what Jesus has done in my home, at my church, and through my work.

I love painting and teaching art, and if some of you are finding some enjoyment in the paintings or learning a few things, that's just great. Please enjoy and learn. But please also know that the lesson and the joy itself has come from Jesus. I can't take credit for that. It would be like the yellow bragging about the sunlight...