My husband, Bruce recently acquired four small theme paintings from Southeastern artist, Grant Nelson. He hung them on either side of the window in the music room. Bruce liked their effect so much, that he started pestering me to create some larger scale graphic design paintings with a music theme for the other walls in the room.
I have no training in graphic design, nor any desire to paint in that style, but Bruce can be VERY persuasive when he gets his heart set on something. So when South Carolina’s hurricane season limited me to indoor activities, I decided it would be a good time to see what I could produce to make Bruce happy. I soon learned that creating good graphic art is harder than it looks. After several failed attempts at coming up with a decent design, I fell back on the time honored tradition that most art schools use to teach a new skill…. Copy someone else’s work.
My first attempt was to paint an enlarged (three foot by three foot) version of a four inch by four inch electric light switch-plate cover with a Kaminski like design on it. It was hung above the piano adding a playful note to the room.
Encouraged, Bruce started bugging me to paint something even larger to hang over the sofa. This time I attempted a triad. The project was very educational. I learned that it is very important to pay close attention to exactly what paint color one is mixing if you are working on a multi canvas set, and I also learned a lot about balancing colors, and tones across the canvas. .Each painting was painted separately then, after all three were completed, I went back to add detail and adjust color notes so that the paintings would view well as a set. In addition, I learned that it is very important to pay close attention to balance color hues and color values across the set of canvases I also learned I don’t want to be a graphic artist, and I how to have a happy husband.
