Welcome Curious Kittens! This is a special 2-part series based on my pilgrimage to Prince Edward Island for the Anne of Green Gables experience. L.M. Montgomery’s books on the stubbornly cheerful and tenacious red-headed spitfire influenced me deeply in my growing up years and this is my homage to it. I hope this private behind-the-scenes peek at the photos, books and resource materials that helped me understand the world Anne lived in (thus shaping the final collection) provides an additional, fascinating layer of inspiration for you to dig in. If you’re an Anne fan, this is a wonderful time to reconnect with the story and the land that inspired it!
In this Part 2, I will be sharing how the photos of my trip to Prince Edward Island inspired the color palette of the “Searching for Anne” mini collection.
If you missed Part 1, revisit it here.
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There are many known ways to create paintings, but these are two I’m most fascinated with: the intuitive way where we feel our way around the colors and shapes and let it rise from our subconscious; and the pre-defined ‘creative brief’ way, where we allow boundaries to expand our creative play.
I’m a fan of both techniques and while they seem contradictory, I have developed my own way of weaving them into my image-making practice so that they work in tandem. When I’m creating a collection inspired by spirit of land, or my traveling adventures, I borrow a technique from one of my favorite interior designers, Sibella Court, in an activity that appears pre-defined at first glance.
To me colors play a great part in expressing and recalling the emotional experiences of a place and creating a color palette, or color story before the first painting is ever made is an important part of building a soulful collection.
I begin with curating a set of photographs from the trip that are most meaningful to me and then drawing the color palette from it using watercolor and scraps of handmade paper. They are cut up into strips and shifted around as I play with creating combinations that move me intuitively.
This color play, along with journaling about the emotions that come up all help shape the color story of the collection, setting the mood and atmosphere of the final collection.
There are sometimes surprises and in the case of “Searching for Anne”, the “Wonder on Lovers Lane” centerpiece ultimately anchored the collection on the deeper end of the color palette instead of the lighter shades I first envisioned.
With the color story as a reference, I begin creating intuitive sketches of ideas and feeling-states from my trip in watercolors and they become the first versions of the final pieces in the collection.
Once the final pieces of the collection is ready, I place them all together to see if there are any gaps in emotive color-usually appearing as a feeling from the trip I failed to express. Sometimes I will feel the need to add an additional piece to fill the gap.
For more tips on building a soulful and cohesive body of work, check out this post on my 30-day challenge.