Art Every Day - Day 2 - ORANGE

Day 2 of Art every day in November -  I played with the color Orange.

I forgot I liked Orange.

As far as the orange family goes - I tend to be drawn mostly to a more pink version, like salmon. I LOVE the color salmon. The fish, not so much (I do not like seafood!) - but the color, definitely! It looks awesome on me, in fact it looks awesome on everyone! It brings out skin tones fabulously. If you've never worn salmon, next time you're in a clothing store hold the color up to you - I guarantee it will look great on you! And if you are tan - the color really pops!

Regular old Orange though - it was my favorite color when I was a kid. I used to wear an Orange hand knit shawl back then, haha. I think my mom made it.  Hey - it was the 70's - shawls were in! ;-) It was ombre Orange (dark at the bottom with fringe and light at the top) and the yarn was kinda silky and shiny but really soft. I loved that shawl. I think I still have it packed in a box somewhere. When my grandmother died when I was 8 though, purple became my favorite color, because it was her favorite color, and she was an artist too. So I adopted the color to honor her.

And I forgot about orange.

Well, I didn't really forget about it - it's half of my children's school colors, and their school name, and the name of the township I live in, and a main road I live off of . So it's a actually a big part of my life, always has been I suppose, but really, in name only. At least since I was 8.  I haven't been drawn to the color for a long time and I really honestly, tended to avoid it.

Until the color meditation I did a few days ago. When red orange and yellow called to me.

When I set up this blog I originally chose a different background, until I came across this one. At first I wasn't thrilled with the color - but it was the swirls that drew me in. Swirls are my thing - and this background is EXACTLY my thing! I am instantly drawn to this kind of pattern. At first though, I had wished it was a different color. But no such luck. If I wanted the swirls - I had to go with the orange and yellow. But the more I looked at it, I realized once again - ironically the universe is wanting me to have these colors right now, so in a matter of moments it became my favorite background. And I love it now! It just ......fits me. Weird how that is.

And so, as I was painting with Orange today I realized - I love Orange.

I think I actually missed orange. Huh.





For this piece (9x12 acrylic on canvas)  I used 2 different oranges - scarlet, and cadmium orange hue - plus black and white again. The scarlet is a deeper reddish orange, and the cadmium is a lighter yellowish orange. Neither were right on their own and I wanted a full range of orange (and didn't want to do 2 separate paintings) so I used both.

Orange is another one of those soft yet strong colors. It's vibrant in it's full intensity. I think it loses its vibrancy though, becomes less powerful (unlike red) when you add black to it. It becomes kind of dull in my opinion. Dirty. I think if I had added the black to the lighter orange it would be very dirty looking - kinda yucky or sickly. Adding the white at the top makes it softer, gentler. Calmer. Yet there is still an intensity there. Orange is a powerful color. Not quite as powerful as red - but still fairly strong.


 I'm really liking the color in the middle of this canvas though - a blend of the 2 oranges I used. I prefer the redder orange over the yellowy orange. It reminds me of a sunset and that is what I was going for when I painted it this way. The dark at the bottom reminds me of night settling in - the sun setting over a marsh perhaps. The added white at the top reminds me of a creamsicle.

 I'm not a huge fan of the taste of oranges, except for when I was pregnant - I craved oranges! Guess I needed some vitamin C. But eating oranges or drinking orange juice I almost never do. I don't know why, its not that I don't like them....I just don't like them enough I suppose. Orange candy or gum I'm ok with on occasion. Creamsicles I like. There's something about making it creamier that I like better I suppose. Sweeter versus sour. Maybe that's why I don't eat oranges or drink the juice - not sweet enough for me. I dunno.

Annnywaaaayy, haha I guess the universe knew I needed a reminder that orange is my friend. A long lost friend. Strange how it knows these things don't you think? The universe always seem to know the lessons we need to learn exactly when we need to learn them. It has a way of reminding us to listen to our soul and desires, even when we didn't know what it was our soul was desiring.

Who knew Orange needed to be heard. Well, I guess the universe did.

I hear ya Orange. Welcome back to my life old friend!