Red Blooms in the Greenhouse
I met three artistic friends last weekend for a few hours of sketching and good cheer at the Lyman Conservatory at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. It’s always a treat to be surrounded by greenery during the transition from winter to mud season. As it turned out, hundreds of other people felt the same way. The place was packed. I had to be careful in the cactus room not to back into spines when letting people pass me in the aisles. And when I thought I had found a good spot to tuck in amidst the tropical plants, an acapella group arrived to serenade visitors. The music was lovely, but crowds soon followed. I wouldn’t trade my visit, or the chance to enjoy red blooms in the greenhouse, but I’ll appreciate the solitude of painting along the roads and fields once again.
Tips and Techniques– Focusing on a single color is a great way to explore different hues and even test pigments that you may not use much. Mix your primary color with hints of other primaries as well as secondaries to push the dominant color in different directions. For example, mix reds with yellow, blue, green, or brown to see what variations you get. The goal is to get to know your paints, and figure out which ones mix well together and which you like best.
If you’d like to take a deeper dive into color, join me for Painting the Colors of Spring, starting March 28.
Drawn In 
What a wonderful setting in which to enjoy friendship and art making. Great useful tips, thanks!
We meet there almost every year and it’s always a nice getaway. Glad the tips were useful. I learned a lot by just focusing on red.
Look at this!
Hi Jean!
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what a beautiful collection of reds, Jean! Was the entire page colored with different primaries added to a red? Such a fun idea. I’ll definitely give that a try (wonder if that will work as well with watercolor pencils?)! Not to downplay the hue adjustment experiment, but what really caught my eye was the clever way you separated the central species from their right and left neighbors. By adding a subtle contrasting background in the middle added some breathing room to the entire composition. Brilliant idea! What a delight to see your post first thing this morning, especially after looking out the window at another 5 inches of freshly fallen snow, with another 4” expected throughout the day. Thank you!
Lovely pictures, and a lovely idea for a new place to check out!
Worth going if you live nearby. Makes a good day trip!
Mud season. Ha, ha. A bit of colour is always lovely at this time of year, but I am with you – being in nature and away from crowds is much better. Happy Spring!
I’ll take both! Plus I have a few bigger art ideas I want to work on before spring really explodes here. A bit of snow flew today, so I think I have time. I’ve learned not to rush it.