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Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Calendula

Greeting card (n/a)
Just a small floral sketch to get me back in the mood for painting. I didn't have any orange paint, but as it turned out the cadmium yellow and cadmium red mix beautifully into all shades of orange. Which brings me to something I have been wondering about... It seems that in the artists circles using green paint is considered a weakness. "Real artists mix their greens" Yet there doesn't seem to be a similar attitude towards the other secondary colors like orange and purple. Is there any rational explanation to that? For example that there are reliable single pigment oranges, like cadmium orange, while premixed greens have a poor lightfastness. Or is there some dose of snobbishness in all that?

6 comments:

Jane said...

Hi Blaga. I have a lot of favorite flowers, and the calendula is one of them, I have sowed them all of my garden ( small city garden) because I love the energy of the orange, and for the same reason I really like this painting, a beautiful shot of energy! I think you are right, there is some snobbishness about the mixing of the colors.

Carol Blackburn said...

Very nicely done.

Judy said...

Hi Blaga! The orange of the calendula is beautiful!
And about mixing colors: every teacher or book about watercolor has their own set of basic colors. Very confusing. So find out what colors you like to use, that's what I would say.

Lydie said...

Greens: everyone does what suits him, as long as the painting is beautiful ... I love these medicinals herbs, I had planted them last year, their petals lit up my little garden

Blaga said...

I also like this flower, Jane, for its bold color while being unpretentious and easy to grow.

Thank you, Carol and Judy for the comments, I'm glad you liked the flowers.
As for the colors, I agree with you Judy, one should build one's own palette by taking all recommendations with a grain of salt :)

Blaga said...

You are right Lydie, I had forgotten that Calendula has medicinal value, like so many of the old garden varieties.