Gouache

I have fallen in love with gouache. I love its intense colors. I love its "flatness" when it dries. i love the fact that I can control it better than watercolor. Fabulous paint!

What are we missing?

We are stuck in our three dimensional existence; and that dimensional existence hinders us from seeing past that existence. Could our understanding of the quantum world benefit from investigating in both one and two dimensional spaces? We could accomplish this through our mathematics, but I do not believe we have any means to measure and detect in any other dimensional array than our current three. I wonder what we are missing. There are known missing pieces in our current understanding of light, gravitational theory and quantum theory do not line up, and entanglement is a mystery. Perhaps if we could measure fewer dimensions these current quantum issues would resolve. Maybe we would find that every where we go our atoms leave a personal quantum signature (seems unlikely with our current quantum understanding). What are we missing?

Thomas Paquette

I have become curious about gouache so I sent for a couple of books. One of the books covered gouache paintings by an artist, Thomas Paquette. following is his web site. Beautiful paintings! http://www.thomaspaquette.com/main.html

Ink On Watercolor Paper

I am using Rotring Rapidograph pens (http://octoberthoughts3.blogspot.com/2008/11/rotring-vs-koh-i-noor.html ), and Arches 140 lb. cold press paper. I got a surprise today. The rapidograph ink spreads out less on the watercolor paper than on drawing paper so I need to use the larger nibs! What a surprise. Any point smaller than .35 almost disappears on the paper. Points .5 and above look the best. What a surprise. Even 2.0 looks fairly good although it is probably the maximum size before the ink would have too much texture.

Wonders of the Internet

The Internet certainly does have its issues, but it is also such a wonderful resource. I want to begin an ink and watercolor painting and began to wonder if the sizing on the paper would interfere with the ink by clogging my technical pens. I tried researching over the Internet and could not find an answer. Then I went to B&N's site and looked for books. I found several by an artist, Googled that artist, found the artist's website and emailed her (she is out in Portland, OR). I got a response in less than a half-hour! I do not have to worry about the sizing as i am using high quality paper. So great to be able to network with other artists!

Two Kayakers

Appalachian Trail

Difficult But Interesting

More Work From UVA

Since I had my work photographed, I have some more pictures of my work from UVA.

Big Step

I have a dozen pieces at a photographer's shop in Cahrlottesville being photogrpahed. Once I have the digital images, I will then make fine art prints, frame them and sell them. Hopefully, this will be a nice source of income so I can build a studio by our house!

Predicate Logic

I just finished my first predicate logic proof! What fun!

The Infinite

Every time I pick up a fresh piece of paper or a blank canvas, I am staring at infinity. Each one holds the possibilities of anything. The bounds are endless as to what they could contain, and how they could be approached. The infinite is in my hands.

My First Palette

After weeks of work, I think I have finally developed my first selection of palette colors. I think every watercolor artist struggles to identify the colors that they feel represent them, and also work well blending with other colors (blending is a vital aspect of watercolor painting). Some of the colors I have chosen are not great at blending but they still offer other aspects that I like. I have also placed Holbein's Leaf Green in my section reseerved for yellows as that is how I am probably going to use it. All of the other colors are Windsor and Newton. So, going from left to right around my John Pike palette are the colors:

Leaf Green
Winsor Yellow
Quinacridone Gold
Indian Yellow
Raw Sienna
Winsor Orange
Permanent Rose
Brown Madder
Winsor Red
Cobalt Violet
Winsor Violet
Winsor Blue (red shade)
French Ultramarine
Cobalt Blue
Manganese Blue Hue
Viridian
Winsor Green
Cobalt Turqousie Light
Permanent Sap Green
Antwerp Blue