We played a game on the way to Deia, or perhaps I quizz of sorts. How do you make that blue, or that grey or that orange or green. Well of course the three colours are, yellow red and blue. But then which red yellows and blues do you use? If the grey is warm, which blue do you use, which yellow do you use, do you use alizeran crimson or cadmium red? Do you use lemon yellow of cadmium yellow, colbalt or ultramarine.
If I want a cold grey I use ultramarine, permanant rose or alizeran and lemon yellow. If I want warm grey I use cobalt, cadmium yellow and cadmium red. I will use those same colours to make burnt sienna, yellow ochre, orange, olive green, deep green, Although for spring green I use lemon yellow and prussian blue. A livley little mixture those colours are.
It’s a good game to play when painting. How would I make that colour, how much water, how much pigment, is it close to or far away, do I want to use a dry brush or a wet brush and if I want to use a wet brush how much water should I use and how much should I tap out. Really the most important answer to all these questions is practice, practice, practice. Your brushes will become an extension of you, the colours will come naturally with out even thinking about them, you will know instinctively how much water you want on your brush to create the effect that you want to make, Of course you can’t count on the weather when painting plein-air and the rain might want to have a little say in your painting!
The rain made it look as if it is snowing in my painting, hey ho we enjoyed ourselves though. We drove to Deia through a down pour. Robert Graves lived here, we didn’t visit his museum either. But we did go down to Cala Deia, I have such fond memories of this place, the best fish in Majorca well at least it used to be when it was caught fresh, grilled with a persillade and served with lemon, olive oil and sauteed potatoes, there is nothing like fresh fish, cooked outdoors and served from sea to plate. Todays lunch was not so tasty but still nice and the waiters were having quite a time with the rain. It was a wonderful trip down memory lane.
A few watery water colours!
The restaurant started to fill the rain started to pour, people were keen to get the dry tables so we left for home.
We have started and evening walk. Linda’s idea and a very good one too. We walk two minutes from the village and behold rolling hills and ancient olive groves, the sound of twinkling bells and sheep bahaha.
Almost too dark to see but still so lovely. We are off to the market tomorrow and looking forward to seeing Roman ruins an ancient walled village and a pretty sea port. Come with us tomorrow. You may just love it.
À bientôt