Brilliant Orange

I am MAD about ORANGE!  LOVE IT!!  I love every juicy hue, tone and shade of it.  I couldn't live with it indoors - it's much too strong and active a colour, but outside, in the crisp, clear Autumn air, against a background of burning blue or mysteries-of-the-ages green,  it fills my soul with a frenzy of delight.

                                                      

I love it in a wild tangle, as in the Chinese Lanterns  above and below, spilling it's bright abandon where ever it feels like roaming.                      

                                                                                                   

And I love it tamed, well, (as tamed as Orange ever gets) in a glory of copper pansies.  Last year, I found some spectacular ones in Orange and Black!

          

Orange of course,  is the happy marriage between red and yellow.   You  can buy it in a tube or you can mix it yourself.  There's really no shame in using tube colours!    They have been carefully mixed by people who know what they are doing, and each quality company produces results you can count on.  But if you are the sort who likes a walk on the wild side now and then, you can mix your own secondary and tertiary colours.   ? ??   Many of you who read this are artists, but for those of you who are not, a Secondary colour is one that is created by mixing two Primary Colours.  A Tertiary colour is created by mixing a Secondary colour with a Primary.    Red, Yellow, and Blue are Primary colours, and you either buy them in a tube or you get hold of the correct minerals and suspensions and a grinding stone.  These colours can not be created  by mixing other paints.  But mix a Primary (Cadmium) Red with a Primary (Cadmium) Yellow, and  ORANGE blossoms forth!!!    Change the recipe a bit by using more red or more yellow, and the orange hue changes.  Add a little of it's complimentaty colour - blue - and you tone it down.  Set the complimentary colour beside it, and both colours blast.  I love colour magic!

I'm going to take a quick ramble through the garden now, to soak up the glory of orange. 

Cheers,                                                                                                                                            Heather                                                                                                                                           www.heatheranderson-animalart.com                                     *  All photos are copyright Heather Anderson

JUST BREATH

Sometimes I need a space to just breath.  I've been busy all along, painting and working on commissions, and  it's been one of the hectic/tense times on the home front.  We all have those now and then.  And all of a sudden, I don't know what to do next with my painting because everything seems so overwhelming.  
The word is, 'Paint what you love.' and I know I love animals - dogs and cats, and horses.  I love being around them, love painting them, but is it time I tried something  else? Or maybe focus on just one type of animal, or just one breed of dog?  
                 

                

 I delight in Faeries, so should I spend some time in Fantasy now?
How about a new interest in tiny landscapes - is this the time to spend getting good at them?  

So many decisions . . . so much to make my head ache. I think I need an aspirin!
I've learned through experience that when times like this land on me, the thing to do is to sit back quietly and just breath.  The answer will fall into place as long as I don't rush out and jump into a series of paintings that will never please me because I wasn't 100 % committed to them at the beginning.
So for the next few days, I'll be doing some serious thinking about which direction I want to take with my painting for the next extended time.  But first, take a breath with me.  AHHH!
cheers,
Heather


http://www.heatheranderson-animalart.com 

PANSY PASSION

I love that moment in April when the air smells like liquid Spring for the first time, so sweet and soft.  On these mornings, the birds fill the air with song and the dogs are giddy with delight because they can feel grass beneath their paws instead of snow.  And I love the march of Spring flowers.  The Snowdrops come first, sometimes blooming through or beside the snow, and then come the Crocuses, but the first flowers to appear at the Garden Center for planting are the Pansies.  I love them, maybe because they were loved by my Grandmother, and maybe just because they are beautiful and smell so heavenly.

Is there anything prettier than the light shining through a copper Pansy?  I admit, I go a bit crazy when it comes to Pansies.  I buy them for the front porch, and for the old cast iron fountain/planter that sits in the center of my garden path, then I go out and buy more.  I love the light blue and the dark purple, the pale, pale yellow ones, and I go wild over the copper ones.  What can I say . . . it's Pansy Passion!  And I tell myself that I need every, single one because this Spring, like every other, I will be painting Pansies.  So I guess I'd better get out paper and paint, because I've just been on a buying spree!