[stylist] Sharing a pantoum -Adding Color to your work

[Mary-Jo Lord]

Hi Linda,
Thanks for such a great explanation of colors and painting. I'm going to
keep this for something to refer to when I'm confused about color.
Mary-Jo
 

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Lynda Lambert
Sent: Tuesday, March 26, 2013 8:28 AM
To: Writer's Division Mailing List
Subject: Re: [stylist] Sharing a pantoum -Adding Color to your work

Good Morning,
Barbara, since you asked me the difference between the two blues we were
talking about, I thought I would write about how color is achieved in
paintings. That is what I know to my core. Just as color in a painting
evokes a mood, so it does in a poem.

The same principles will work with words, when you stop to consider how to
achieve color in writing, too.
The choice we make when writing about a color, will cause our work to have a
mood and give the reader a very particular sense of place, or feeling.

Speaking of colors - there are as many colors as there are stars in the sky.

But to begin, we can break them down into families of color. This is very
basic. You probably learned how to use a "color wheel" as a child, or in
primary school? The Color Wheel has only SIX colors and from those SIX, all
other colors are derived.  Remember the Roy G. Biv way of remembering your
colors?  Red - Orange - Yellow- Green - Blue - Indigo - and Violet.

So when you are talking about Azure Blue, Cerulean Blue, Midnight Blue, Baby
Blue, Sky Blue, Cobalt Blue, or any of the other zillion blues - they are
all in ONE COLOR FAMILY, to begin with. So you begin there.

Now, how do we get all those different BLUES? There are a number of ways to
do that.  When you are painting, you normally have one or two different tube
paints in two different blues - for example:  I would have a "cerulean blue
tube" and another much deeper blue tube of paint, such as "Thalo Blue." 
This will give me a far wider range of options and here is why.

Cerulean Blue is mid-tone color and an opaque paint - that means you cannot
see through it at all when it is put on the palette, no matter how thin you
apply it. It is very dense.

Thalo blue, on the other hand is quite a highly saturated color (very
different than Cerulean) thin and it is transparent. It is so powerful of a
color that you can only mix a little tad of it in with your other paints. It
will completely take over and it will take a lot of skill to be able to use
Thalo blue successfully.

Basically, you can think of a color application in painting as one of three
things:  transparent, translucent, or Opaque.

That would be how  the paint appears as it is mixed on the palette and of
course it would appear that way on the canvas after it is applied.  It would
most likely be applied in very thin layers, one upon the other. As the
layers are worked over each other, you would bring in very subtle nuances of
colors - each affecting the previous layers - this would be how the "old
masters" painted.
Watercolors are transparent colors typically. To get those kinds of
transparencies with oils you have to add other mediums to it, such as
linseed oil and a touch of turpentine - and there are other materials you
can use as well to get the oils more fluid and thinned down. By nature, they
are heavy, and have to be "worked" to get them ready for applying to the
canvas.

The other popular kind of paint for modern painters is acrylics.  Acrylics
are very different than the previous two mentioned above. Acrylic can also
be transparent - this is done by adding lots of water to the paint; and, or,
spraying the surface of the canvas with a spray of water from a pistol grip
bottle or atomizer. You can get very ethereal and lovely surfaces and colors
with acrylics. The are actually water based paints, and people love them
because you don't have toxic chemicals to mix with them, and you do not have
strong odors in the studio.
You can layer the acrylics masterfully, just as you can the oil paints, once
you learn how to do that - it takes time and lots of practice! But, they are
wonderful paints.

There are many other kinds of paints, too, but these three are the most used
ones.

To get the myriad of colors you may want, you can learn how to add various
amounts of other colors into your mixture - this takes a lifetime to learn.

White can be on your palette, too. But, an amateur painter will think that
white will give you the lighter colors, and will not realize that the white
will weaken your colors and cause them to appear chalky. A pro will know how
to mix the colors with other colors and barely touch the pile of white on
the palette - it is used very carefully.  White is NOT a COLOR. And, there
is nothing that is white in nature. There are things that appear to be
white, but they are really a mixture of many other very subtle colors that
give the illusion of being white.

And, then, there is BLACK. Black in ever, ever, found in nature. Like white,
it is an illusion and when a person learns color theory they will quickly
see there is no such thing as anything that is black. The very darkest hue
or value  of any color, gives the illusion of being black to the untrained
amateur.

You will always see lots of primitive, naieve, artists using both white and
black in their paintings. This is because they have had no training and have
no understanding of color theory.

 A professional landscape or portrait  painter will never have black paint
in their palette at all. Black will do the opposite of what white will do -
it will flatten your colors and dull them down, and distort them into a
garish mess. And, BLACK is not a color, either.  Black, however, will be the
joy of a contemporary painter - and it is used as a statement and a thumbing
of the nose to traditional "rules."  Before I started my BFA in Painting, I
had been a painter for about 10 years. I was traditionally trained, and was
soaked in "color theory." My work was already being shown in museums
nationally and published in magazines before I ever started my undergraduate
education.

In undergrad school, I went out and bought gallons of black paint and large
brushes from the hardware store and plunged into a new world! Defiance! 
Dissonance!

In your writing, you will learn to use color to get the nuances you desire
as well. It is those subtle nuances that make the work sing.  When using the
name of a color, think about what that word really means - the history of
it's use; how it looks; how it would feel; how it might smell; and how it
fits into your goals for that poem.

Myrna's poem, "Azure Skies" has it all and that's why it "works."


Lynda



----- Original Message -----
From: "Barbara Hammel" <poetlori8 at msn.com>
To: "Writer's Division Mailing List" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, March 26, 2013 1:17 AM
Subject: Re: [stylist] Sharing a pantoum Azure Skies Thank you all!


> Oooo!  You've used cerulean in a poem?  Maybe I'll have to look up my 
> poems that have mentioned azure or cerulean.  (I might even want to try my

> hand at making them better but I have this thing in my head that tells me:

> once they are done, they are done.  You said what you wanted at the time 
> so leave it alone.  Rewriting would make me consider it a whole new poem. 
> Crazy, I know, but it is what it is.)
> Barbara
>
>
>
>
> Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance. -- Carl Sandburg
> -----Original Message----- 
> From: KajunCutie926 at aol.com
> Sent: Monday, March 25, 2013 1:04 PM
> To: stylist at nfbnet.org
> Subject: Re: [stylist] Sharing a pantoum Azure Skies Thank you all!
>
> Thank you to all for your kind words and sharing your own unique
> perspectives about the poem.
> I too have folders.. a main NFB folder and sub-folders.  I am very 
> humbled
> that others have created a folder for my work.
> Shawn nailed it about the contrast of azure which denotes beauty and light
> and the sorrow and darkness.  This poem was inspired by the time after my
> husband's death. It was so unexpected that I found myself in a dark place
> but at  the same time I wanted to embrace the sky.  The discussion of 
> colors
> was  really interesting to me as I use color in much of my work and have 
> even
> written  about cerulean.  Now I am thinking about cyan and how to work 
> that
> into a  piece.
> Again thank you so much!  Now off to do more reading.
> Myrna
>
>
> In a message dated 3/25/2013 12:00:47 P.M. Central Daylight Time,
> llambert at zoominternet.net writes:
>
> I have  been thinking lately about the words that we use over the years in
> our own  writing.  As I am working on my archives, I am coming across some
> words that are very consistently in my lexicon over a long time - since
> the
> 70s.  A project I would like to tackle when I have a space of  time to do
> it
> would be to explore my own vocabulary and begin to weave the  pieces
> together
> as I encounter them - a research project into my own  work.
>
> Azure is really a state of mind.
> I am sure I have never used  that word in anything I have written - it's a
> very beautiful word that  evokes so many hues - Reading Myrna's poem 
> seemed
> to open up a window for  me this morning - a window into the heavens
> because
> it implies a kind of  transparent or translucency.
> Lynda
>
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original  Message ----- 
> From: "Barbara Hammel" <poetlori8 at msn.com>
> To:  "Writer's Division Mailing List" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Monday,  March 25, 2013 11:25 AM
> Subject: Re: [stylist] Sharing a pantoum Azure  Skies
>
>
>>I have a Myrna folder, too.
>> Azure is one of those  words I work in to poems on occasion.  My other
>> favorite sky  color is cerulean.
>> So, Lynda, what is the difference between azure and  cerulean?  And I
>> thought cyan was the color that is an even mix  of blue and green,
>> somewhere between aqua and turquoise.
>>  Barbara
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Poetry is an echo, asking a  shadow to dance. -- Carl Sandburg
>> -----Original Message----- 
>>  From: Lynda Lambert
>> Sent: Monday, March 25, 2013 8:54 AM
>> To:  Writer's Division Mailing List
>> Subject: Re: [stylist] Sharing a  pantoum Azure Skies
>>
>> Here is my thoughts after reading this  excellent poem:
>>
>> This Pantoum is so rich in mythological  imagery. It is ethereal.
>>
>> Your choice of the two noun, Zephyr,  combined with Breeze,
>>
>> gives the feeling of lightness,fluidity,  and fragility.
>>
>> And then you pull into this combination the  color that is  historically
>> mythological - Azure!
>>
>>  Together the two words denote anything that is very fine and light, and
>> even
>> magical in nature.
>>
>>
>>
>> The  Zephyr is such a fragile kind of breeze - in ancient times it was
>>  known
>> as the "West Wind."
>>
>>
>>
>> Azure always  makes us bring out thoughts to the heights, upwards, to the
>> sky, and  even the atmosphere. It is a delicate blue, yet rich in value.
> At
>>  times it is called "Alice Blue."
>>
>> In early times, painters  would not use Azure as a pigment because they
>> believed it to be  unstable, but in time, it was realized that it was
>> indeed
>> a  stable color and after that we began to see it brought into paintings.
>>  Typically, it would be used in paintings of sacred events - it denoted
>>  royalty, and holiness.
>>
>>
>>
>> I think your poem gives  allusions to these things so well, and
>> particularly
>> it works  because of the Pantoum form. I noticed immediately that you 
>> used
>> the  traditional Pantoum form, using end rhymes. You did it so well that
>>  the
>> poem does not have the kind of rigidity that often comes via a  rhymed
>> ending. Your rhyming end words retain the lightness you created  from the
>> first line.
>>
>>
>>
>> In photography  and on the web, Azure is a color that  is also called
> Cyan.
>>
>> Often this color is called light sky blue, baby blue,  and silver lake
>> blue.
>> I have a feeling that this color will  be found in the art of just about
>> any
>> civilization, and it  will be used with the depiction of things from
>>  Nature.
>>
>> I suspect you could do an entire research project on  the topic of "Azure
>> Skies."  It is that BIG in scope, I  think.
>>
>>
>>
>> OH, the other thing that was strange as  I read this poem, is that I had
>> read
>>
>> "brush" as  "blush" without realizing it.  So I went back once I realized
> I
>>  had mis-read the poem, and I purposely read it as "blush" in those
>>  places -
>> and WOW, again, the idea of painting and the movement of the  artist's
> hand
>> was so clear to me.
>>
>>
>>
>> This  is a very "painterly poem."
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanks for  sharing.
>>
>> I started a Myrna folder, so I can keep some of your  gems - this one is
> in
>> it!
>>
>>  Lynda
>>
>>
>>
>> My Blog:   http://www.walkingbyinnervision.blogspot.com
>> My Website:   http://lyndalambert.com
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>  ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From:  <KajunCutie926 at aol.com>
>> To: <stylist at nfbnet.org>
>>  Sent: Sunday, March 24, 2013 10:28 PM
>> Subject: [stylist] Sharing a  pantoum Azure Skies
>>
>>
>>> Okay here is my last pantoum  which I believe was written about three
>>> months
>>>  ago...  I also attached it as  a rich text  file...
>>>
>>> Azure Skies
>>>
>>> That I  could soar across  azure skies
>>> To leave my thoughts upon  zephyr's breeze
>>> And ask no quarter  or compromise
>>>  When night time comes and darkness bleeds
>>>
>>> To leave  my  thoughts upon zephyr's breeze
>>> Brush stroked dreams,  watercolor hued
>>> When  night time comes and darkness  bleeds
>>> Upon the echo of my soul   renewed
>>>
>>> Brush stroked dreams, watercolor  hued
>>> They fill the heart  where grief had grown
>>>  Upon the echo of my soul renewed
>>> The truth of these  thoughts  unknown
>>>
>>> They fill the heart where grief had  grown
>>> And ask no  quarter or compromise
>>> The truth  of these thoughts unknown
>>> That I could  soar across azure  skies
>>>
>>>
>>>  nfbnet.org/kajuncutie926%40aol.com
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>
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----
>>
>>
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