Art Every Day in November - Day 1 - RED

As I start this new art journey and blog- I read somewhere today, that November is - create art every day - month. I thought that lined up pretty well with my creativity cleanse and Soul Art discovery I am embarking on. So I am hereby going to attempt to do art every day in November and post about it here. Cuz where else am I gonna do it. ;-)

I am in the process of going back to the basics in art - learning about colors and shapes and what speaks to me. Yesterday's Cleanse assignment dealt with color but I want to take it a step further. Instead of just writing about what each color means to me - I want to also create a painting of each color. Just the color itself plus black and white. And then journal about it.


So today - day 1 - I'm starting with the all mighty RED.

I know - it's a boring painting. It's rather small - 9x12 canvas. I used acrylic - Napthol Crimson with a little carbon black and titanium white.  I have a whole series of these paintings I'm going to do with every color. (At least 16 of them because I have 16 of these small canvases.) And I basically just listened to the color and painted it how it wanted to be portrayed today. Sounds weird I know. But that's what this exploring thing is all about.

So....Red.  I'm not a huge fan of red. I look pretty good in red most of the time - it goes with my skin tone especially if I'm tan.  I don't mind the color, I'm just not drawn to it. Its an intense powerful color. Its a strong confident color. Maybe that's why I'm not drawn to it. Its bold - and I am not.  But maybe that is also why it called to me yesterday. I need to explore this bold color and incorporate it more into my life.

As I was painting this I thought -  I need to paint it strong and striking in a diagonal - like a slash of red across the canvas. Then I added a touch of black down in the corner. The color became almost......sinister to me with the black. Dark and foreboding. When I added the white to the top, the color became....weak. It lost its power. That was a very interesting thought.

Red is most often associated with Love. Hearts and flowers and Valentines. Red lips. Sexuality. Intense passionate feelings. Another reason I am not drawn to it I suppose, as those feelings have been frustrating to me of late.

It is also the color of anger and heat. Of blood, of strong sinister thoughts and feelings. The "red room of pain", which is also a room of pleasure. It is a contradictory color I have just realized. It is loving, yet angry. It is strong, yet can be made weak. It is a color of pride, yet also war.

It is a warning color. STOP! It is an energetic color that make you want to go! Do! Be! It makes your heart race and provokes your senses. It is passion! It is consuming.

It is Red!