Beginnings in Green
August 12, 2009 by Janice
“When forced to work within a strict framework the imagination is taxed to its utmost – and will produce its richest ideas. Given total freedom the work is likely to sprawl.” ~T.S. Eliot
Once upon a time, one of my best mentors ever, Patricia Tobacco Forrester , said that greens were “tough to do.” And they are. It’s very easy for green pigments to look like nothing you would see in nature.
So of course from time to time I just have to go there.
I am perverse like that.
So here I am beginning these unopened blossoms.
For the most part a barely there spring green.
Some cerulean, some viridian dipped into it, for form , shadow and reflection. Little tucks and folds that will read “blossom” eventually. With enough blue on them to make the air around them alive.
And to make matters even more taxing, these blossoms to be are nested in leaves that are very close in range. The layer beyond that, against the sky? You guessed it. Green on blue. So we have a few planes to distinguish, one from the other. This is this and that is that and oh by the way, make them lovely. And make them “read” when all is done, the way you want them, so the story is just so.
Narrowing of choices. But not of challenges.
Making a few colors seem like more. Putting breadth and breath into some little bit of something. Creating a believable world from that. That is what this little piece requires.
Instead of feeling restricted though, it makes me smile. Because not seen yet, not really called into play are all those greens’ opposites. You may have heard me say that when you pick up one end of a stick you also get the other. With that range of green, we get a range of reds. Already the red of orange is working in one of the greens… that’s how you get olive. Warmth.
And you get green’s analogous mates, adjacencies on that color wheel, the range of blues….see? Already we have full spectrum. So it is not as restricted as you would think. You just have to figure out when to call in an assist , and when to not. What family says blossom, what group says sky, what group says leaves in the shade, or leaves in the sun…push…pull…distinguish, let recede. Make one shout, let another whisper…and let another just be.
Managing, orchestrating, coaxing…..greens and friends to behave like a well trained chorus that sings the song you want. Or leads you into the story. A bit of dance on a hedge.
Too much to ask from one little bit of something?
Well, we’ll see won’t we? Because this little bit of something seems to matter to me. It seems to speak of time and place and of a moment.
Of unexpected pleasure.
Of something I have even yet to see, but I sense it. It is known somewhere deep within. I just have to pull it out. And apparently in green.
A pause, an ah ha and some continuity. A challenge to make it come alive….so we can all see …what is it?
Not fully sure. But here we have beginnings in green.
How about you? Ever narrow your playing field for the challenge? Do you keep moving your comfort zone enough to keep your skill set honed?
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Janice, “narrowing of choices but not challenges” Aha! It speaks very much to the state of life/business today where a tightened economy has caused us to narrow our choices but within those “restrictions” true creativity flourishes.Brilliant!
Hi Karen,
Limits seem to limit, but only for awhile.. like those lines and paint by numbers that we might just have to play with and make our own…