September 18, 2014

Today Pam and I spent a couple of hours reviewing the items I had been working on. There were two 10" plate borders, two 8" bowls, a number of practice boards, some sketches and some practices on tracing paper. We looked at photos of objects Pam saw on this summer's trip to Norway. We discussed the subtleties of color and shapes of a variety of articles, their merits and flaws. Pam pointed out the merits and flaws in my explorations as well. All this is very helpful for learning the do's and don't's of Gudbrandsdal rosemaling.

After the critiques we each got our palettes ready, paints mixed, designs transferred to woodenware. At lunch we discussed more rosemaling examples, contemporary and antique.

Back in the studio we each began our respective projects, taking numerous breaks for me to see what Pam was doing and for Pam to check on my progress. I learned more about turnovers and linework (especially the proper shapes for the pockets) and put into practice some subtle color shifts that give the viewer more interesting details to explore. The 14" plate above is what I worked on. We painted all afternoon and I made the 2 hour drive home. I hadn't intended to, but found I could not rest until I had completed the other side of the plate. I'd done one half of the design at Pam's. It didn't feel right to leave it half done. I still have the center flower to do and I'm not sure about the red linework. It's the warm/cool warm/warm thing. Besides the turnovers which are warm, the red linework - also warm - may be too much warm. I like the punch of color but wonder if light blue wouldn't have been better.

Homework:
I will try doing dark strokework and letting it dry and then doing the turnovers in a different color. In this way the dark strokes and the light strokes do not blend. Often this is done wet into wet. This will be wet into dry.
Using an antique example of a Gudbrandsdal design I will redesign it using it as inspiration. Pam will do the same.
I will work on continuous border designs that are not repetitive.
Next time we will paint a section from the Lesja Church photos Pam took in Norway. I am to choose the panel I want to paint from and we will both reinterpret it at Pam's.