+The serendipitous brush August 9, 2002 Dear Artist; Seasoned painters may think I'm reinventing the wheel here, but this idea is one that many--even many abstractionists--need to know about: The normal and obvious process is to mix a colour to match the local colour of the subject matter and then apply it in its proper place in the painting. For a change, try this: Mix a colour--any colour--then look around and try to find a place to put it. For many artists this is awkward, reverse thinking. I'm here to tell you--it's dynamite. There's another spin to the process: You have your brush loaded with that arbitrary colour, and you're looking around for somewhere to put it. Say this: "Form up." You're telling yourself to find and shape one of the painting's forms that are in need of further resolution. Of course, there are some artists that are actively avoiding forms. That's okay too. Like you do when you go to the shoe store--you're "trying on." It's the old story of commit and correct. Your imagination can only tell you so much about what will happen when you put a certain colour in a certain place. To truly see how things will work out--you have to commit. There's yet another spin to the process: You don't have to put your stroke of colour in an exact place. You might just try putting it "nearby." You do this somewhat automatically by simply standing back a bit, half closing your eyes, and seeing--that's it--seeing--approximately where that colour is needed. It's Charles Reid's idea of letting the painting tell you what it needs. This "nearby" idea may not always make sense--it may appear unnatural, even sloppy. But it's an exercise that can give energy and vitality to the work. The real beauty of using these sister processes is that your work of art develops holistically. By going here and there with a serendipitous brush, elements overall gradually come into focus. Like a ship emerging from a fog, your creation builds itself and is more likely to have a look of unity. Best regards, Robert PS: "Painting calls for skill of hand in order to discover things not seen, that hide themselves under the shadow of natural objects, and to fix them with the hand, presenting to plain sight what does not actually exist." (Leonardo da Vinci) "Painting means gaining control without impeding the creative process." (Don Farrell) Esoterica: Paintings are effective when they contain form and formlessness, gradations and flats, recessions and protrusions, losts and founds, opacities and transparencies, fecundity and paucity, and leave the viewer to put in some of the flourishes. "I shut my eyes in order to see." (Paul Gauguin) The following are selected correspondence arising from the above and other letters. Thanks for writing rgenn@saraphina.com Please scroll down to the bottom for the Carl Rungius material. +"Colour dowsing" method Listening to the painting is as important as telling it. I've been doing and teaching my version of color listening for years. I call it 'color dowsing.' When I feel an imbalance in the color of the emotional color balance is off, I ask myself: "what color is missing" Usually the answer is a primary color, such as yellow. It's left to me to discover what kind of warm color will work. I do this by picking up a color that would balance the whole, with no regard for 'local color’ or ‘right color' and 'dowsing' with it. I move the color over the painting, touching down lightly in likely spots. When I find the right place, my hand knows it. I make strong confident marks when I'm happy with the placement. I've learned a lot this way, expanding my color sense in unexpected ways; discovering colors that work better than the colors I see. Kitty Wallis walliscorp@yahoo.com

+No fallback color mixes You just described my recent painting holiday and workshop on Monhegan Island. I bought a wish list of colors-series 4-5-6 on ebay and I had a whole week to "play" before my workshop participants arrived. By the middle of the second week I did a piece that I knew was a breakthrough. Find a place for that cobalt violet or carmine. My new favourite color is cobalt turquoise (my gourmet cerulean). The process is on the idea of exercises with upside down images in Betty Edwards "Drawing on The Right Side of The Brain". I didn't have the old "fallback" color mixes and it was very right brain! J.Baldini islandartist@yahoo.com

+Mood determined by first colour I take the first colour that feels right to start a painting with no thought of where it’s being applied.  That first colour sets the mood for the rest of the painting. Sometimes I take my "finished" painting and turn it on its side, or upside-down to see what other painting I've painted.  I had a very pleasant surprise once when I turned a landscape of a winter lake on its side and a beautiful non-objective painting was hiding there.  Alfred Muma awmuma@shaw.ca +Merlin Enabnit In a recent clickback you mentioned Merlin Enabnit. I have two paintings done by him that were given to me by a cousin.  They are both portraits of my late Grandmother and I must say they are fabulous.  The colors are so rich and beautiful. June Hart hart5356@earthlink.net (RG note) Merlin Enabnit (1903- 1979) was noted for a superb sense of colour and colour mixing. He coined the concept of "mother colour" being the predominant colour in a painting. Enabnit’s colours vibrate with opposites on the colour wheel—often with complementaries such as yellow and purple mixed and laid down with one stroke of the brush or palette knife. Enabnit’s shadow tones glow with reflected light. At one time Enabnit was distracted into painting pin-up girls for calendars, etc., and for a while rivalled the American pin-up master George Petty. Postcards, magazine covers and a campaign for White Owl cigars made him a well known artist. While he was a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts of England, he was not British. He was born near Des Moines, Iowa, in 1903, and worked out of Chicago. He is best known for his portraits of United Nations luminaries. The artist was also known for the "Merlin Enabnit No. 1 Palette Knife" which was marketed nationally. Many will remember that he authored how-to books for Walter T. Foster on painting with a palette knife, portraiture, and use of colour. Our look into the use of complementary colours can be found at http://www.painterskeys.com/clickbacks/compcolor.htm +The right place to put the "wrong" colour I use your 'find a place to put a color' technique all the time, in a slightly different way. Back in my early years, to avoid waste, when I mixed too much of a specific color, or got it wrong, rather than wipe my brush and start over trying to mix the color I was going for, I'd scan the whole painting for places where I might use my 'wrong' color. I did this unconsciously for years, until I saw a video of myself, painting. It looked like my brush was just bouncing randomly from one area of the painting to another, and I suddenly understood why students were frequently mystified by my demonstrations. I realized that what looked like random brush strokes all over the place was just me trying to find a use for colors that weren't quite what I'd been aiming for in a particular area of the painting. I paint very quickly, not because I'm rushing over details, but because I don't waste a lot of time washing my brush and remixing colors. My 'use what I've got on my brush' technique has led to some wonderful serendipitous color harmonies, too. Eleanor Blair, Gainsville, Florida, USA EBlairstar@aol.com +Approaches to painting I think your idea of starting with the color first, then finding a subject to match it, is just wonderful. I am going to develop one of my lessons around that concept. My series of lessons this time around is entitled "Approaches" and this certainly will fit in. Barbara Kerr, Inverness, FL bkerr@tampabay.rr.com +Wegman helps people People began creating art at the same time we started creating religions. We have a need to get deep into our spirit, or soul, whether that spirit is "good" or "bad". Looking at Wegman's work makes me laugh and I feel that he has helped many people reach a silly place. How many adults forget that such a place exists in our psyche? It's there for a reason. Art is anything you respond to....negative or positive...it is life. By the sounds of the intense negativity of the responses to Wegman’s work, I would say he has done some powerful work. Susan Burns, ebdesign@mindspring.com

+Artprice.com Every week I get an e-mail from www.artprice.com It all sounds very interesting, however  a lot of things are not clear and are a bit nebulous. I typed your name into their site last night and your name came up. Are you signed up with them? If you are would you let me know please! If you are not and have some more information, I also would very much appreciate your opinion.

Gerhilde Stulken stulken@uniserve.com (RG note) I’m not registered with them. This site puts up artist’s auction prices automatically by tracking published results from many markets—a useful service. Their auction results and other features are the "content" that brings traffic to their site. With regard to the effectiveness that an artist might have by registering as one of their featured artists—in the various surveys we have done I’m not aware that this one has been mentioned either favorably or unfavorably. That could change if users of this site have anything to report. Previous surveys on selling and marketing art on line are "Internet Art Review" http://www.painterskeys.com/clickbacks/internetreview.htm "On-line Galleries" http://www.painterskeys.com/clickbacks/online.htm "Survey results--selling art on the web." http://www.painterskeys.com/results.htm +Me and my art

Michael Chesley Johnson mcj@sff.net

Cutler Bay Fog, Maine

þ Please feel free to comment on anyone’s remarks. If you add your email address right after your name at the end of your letter, we will include it. If you wish to write incognito we will honor that too. All unused letters are carefully archived for possible future use. We generally include ten or so letters in each "clickback" so you can expect about the same amount of reading. Readers really appreciate it when you tell us approximately where you are located. It would also be great if you could include where we might find some of your work on the net. We edit most letters for clarity and brevity. We are able to translate letters from most languages. Please address your letters to rgenn@saraphina.com

Carl Rungius (1869-1959) (RG notes) "September Snow." Note the radiating composition that draws attention to and contains the pair of mule deer. Note the lineup of the rear deer’s neck area with the tree behind—giving strength to the composition. Note the overall radial design from a fulcrum below the picture plane. Also note the counterpoint between the radiating foreground trees and the more distant trees. Note the variations in the two animal’s markings, the subtlety of the animal’s coloration and the cool reflective light on the bellies which helps with their roundness and solidity. Note how the delicate angled horizontals of the branches play a role in controlling eye movement around and back. Note the speedy gradations in the main trees that hold the rump, the nose, and anchor the dynamic and focal design of the compound antlers. "Spring on the Range." Note here the simple joy and casual painting of the foreground motifs. Half close your eyes and see the various shrubs form up into species. Note how foreground gradations help with the illusion. Note how the pronghorn antelopes, if viewed from above, would be turned every which way. Note how the delicate touches of pink and sienna within the grasslands echo the colors of the animals and lend unity to the whole. "Green Field Landscape." This is one of the 9 x 11 field sketches from the Glenbow archives in Calgary, Canada. Note the thumbtack spots in the corners. The date on this sketch is probably 1910 so it’s pretty loose and fresh for the time. It’s an example of the dictum: "Realism from a distance, interesting from middle-distance, abstract from close-up." In any case Rungius has achieved with remarkable economy and bravura a strong sense of place and atmosphere. You may be interested to know that artists from every state in the USA, every province in Canada, and at least 105 countries worldwide have visited these pages since January 1, 2002. The Twice-Weekly Letters are in Russian at http://painterskeys.narod.ru/ The Twice-Weekly Letters are in French at http://www.painterskeys.com/fr/ If you would like to see selected, illustrated responses to the last letter "Strokes of pleasure" please go to http://www.painterskeys.com/clickbacks/strokesp.htm If you think a friend or fellow artist may find value in the Twice Weekly Letter or in the correspondence arising from it, please feel free to copy. This does not mean that they will automatically be subscribed to the twice-weekly letter. They have to do it voluntarily and can find out about it at http://www.painterskeys.com