Crusade No 52 – seasonal wardrobe

Over at the GPP Street Team Michelle’s asking if the change of seasons brings a change of colour palette. My initial thought was no – my colours are what the are. There is something that changes with the seasons, and that’s the size I work at. But then, as I looked for examples of the size thing, I started to notice that there are changes in my colour palette – subtle, but the changes are certainly there. By the way, we’re just about at the shortest day and so far it’s been a winter with record temperatures; records highs, that is. Today is overcast and about 17 (63) degrees. A socks and t-shirt day, not a boots and cardigan day.

Why does the size I at work at change with the seasons? Practicality. My art room is in the old caravan shed; it’s unlined, with a concrete floor on dirt, and uninsulated corrugated iron walls. In a world – cold! To get to it I have to dash outside in the pouring rain, only a short distance but thoroughly unpleasant on a bad day. For most of the year I work BIG in the art room, flinging paint round and being messy. Then, for the coldest wettest months of the year I work on the desk in my inside office that I use for studying and to run our small business. This means working smaller, and working neater. I try hard not to fling paint up the walls (but haven’t always succeeded).

Looking at the images in my files, I can see that I use more warm and even hot colours in winter when I am working smaller. The big works are often quite cool blues and greens. It’s not something I had been conscious of before. Thanks for opening my eyes to it Michelle. Below are some poppie paintings; the full size sheets of watercolour were done in summer but the 10″ square poppies were done this morning. The large blue one was also a summer paintings but the small red painting was a winter one.

The earth shook last night - 4x8"

Working the Freezing Works XI - 40x60"

Poppies - 10x10"

Poppies - full size sheet of watercolour paper