Book Exchange: Water & Color by Tina

Dear Laura,

Looking at your painting of the shoreline and beach rose along the coast of Connecticut, inspired me to think about water.  On my recent trip to Hawaii, I was amazed at how clear the water was.  On the boat tour around the Na Pali coast of Kauai, I could see all the way to the bottom of the ocean floor (it was shallow at 10-20 feet where we were).  The water around me in South Carolina is green and murky.  This is because of the rich nutrients, plankton, and other organic matter, from the marsh and rivers that wash around the islands.  I wonder if it clears up off the coast and how far out?

This painting is of the water I observed in Hawaii.  It was turquoise with a mix of royal blue.  Sometimes as blue as Windex.  It looked like it was glowing!  I am practicing mixing and layering colors with acrylic paints.  Recognizing I use color sparingly in my art, and am curious if it is because I lack understanding of it or if it truly is something I intentionally use to draw the eye around the composition.  I do not plan to become a painter any time soon, instead, I am using the material to learn. I started my art practice as a painter because it is so fundamental to a lot of learning in the arts.   It has been enjoyable exploring it.  I am still working on answering my question about color, but I am leaning closer to recognizing that I use color to pull the various compositional elements, such as found objects and drawings, together in harmony. 

Tina