"Don't only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets; art deserves that, for it and knowledge can raise man to the Divine."

 

I hope secret is helping you discover and uncover different things in your practice. Below are things we've been creating lately for Blend & Split--it's always so interesting to see the different directions one prompt can go in!

“For the first, BLEND, I did a few different sheets of color and I did them in two sizes. One in my regular square sketchbook and then a second version in a larger book that my husband brought home for me a few weeks ago.. I took all my blues and swiped them on the page with a palette knife in big marks. Where the different hues touched they blended on the page. I did the same with orange and then again with green. ” - CLAUDIA

“Blend / Watercolor - I added drops of paint in two horizontal lines and then used a very wet wide brush to blend the colors upward and downward. Kind of reminds me of the Northern Lights, which unfortunately we did not see on our recent trip to Alaska.” - MITZI

"Split / Watercolor - I took the same idea and technique I used in the Blend piece, but split into these 15 rectangles. I keep returning to the 15 rectangles pattern. Anyway, just like for the Blend prompt, I added drops of paint along the bottom and then used a very wet wide brush to blend them upward. The effect here reminds me of the Northern Lights, which we did not see in Alaska last week. Still, this was a fun exercise. ❤️" - MITZI

“Split - I chose another playful spheres exercise then split and separate the page and glued it to a clean sheet. Not sure what it is with me and circles or spheres but I like painting them. I’m playing around with a second sheet of circles and will share soon.” - KAREN

“More circles. The first is a free for all with a limited color palette. The second I would like to try again as my background could be darker and some of the ‘lights’ are off tone. I find circles to be relaxing which allows me to sit at the table longer I suppose. I’m also counting my many blessings and saying prayers for those suffering here in the US and elsewhere.” -KAREN

“For SPLIT I took three paintings from my pile that I've done on scraps of paper and cardboard and in the case of the cardboard I cut them where there was a natural fold and on the paper painting which I had done with a brayer, I just cut it in half. And then I  pasted the pieces into my SketchBook collage-like." - CLAUDIA

I'm hoping to catch up this weekend--I have some rough sketches that are ready to be finished and I'm also ready to get started on Secret! I am looking forward to seeing what you do with it and our next October prompt! Talk to you soon,