Radical Impressionist: A Mathematician Paints

 8/10/19: Doing the Watercolor Part I had me thinking a lot about how perhaps to progress.  So i will continue (and finish) my Part II.  However, first I wanted to include a new Facebook post with my first watercolor in a long time: I pulled out my watercolors and attempted a favorite scene.  Some lessons learned: Don’t forget the focal point with its dark and light contest Try again with a limited palette of familiar colors (these colors happened to be available from a old palette which happened to have many colors laid out) Try to get darks without having to go back over them. Testing adding a 4th bullet by copy and pasting the third one: I will look for the painting with the notes and add the notes here. I found it useful to put the notes at the bottom of the painting.  They can easily be torn off.  The image is approximately in a golden mean ratio. If I like the painting I will use a frame 8x13.  Oh yes, I am going to have to deal w...

Golden Ratio Piedra Lumbre Piedra Lumbre II, 15x24, oil The Piedra Lumbre (shining stone) painting has a proportion that is approximately the golden ratio - or the golden mean, an irrational number, approximately 1.610287...., meaning continuing without end.  As an irrational number it cannot be expressed as a ratio of two integers.   I’ve done many paintings, with 10x16 dimension and a few at 15x24, and this 15x24, still with a ratio of 10/16 or 5/8. Note that these are two number in the Fibonacci sequence.  1,1,2,3,5,8, .... The radio of two consecutive numbers gets closer and closer to the golden mean as we progress through the sequence.  Try calculating:  5/3, 8/5/ 13/8, 21/13,... The golden mean is related to the golden spiral, a form found in nature everywhere since it in fact represents how growth takes form (think sunflowers, ferns, tree branches, Nautilus Shell). The ratio is thought to be the most pleasing to the eye, perhaps because it is so perv...

The canyons of Ghost Ranch and Chama River are an hour’s drive from my Santa Fe home and I try to go there to paint as often as possible. This was the home of Georgia O’Keeffe. Sometimes I try to channel her style but more often I tend to want to use more color and also to use a Palette Knife (or knives).  I like the feel of working with a knife and you can judge for yourself but the results are often better for me. So, I have done a series of canyon color paintings recently primarily using palette knife. This is of the first large ones (18x24). I actually took some liberty with a nearby ‘canyon’, Diablo Canyon, just up the road from me. Its rock formation consists of tones of grey rather than the colors of the Ghost Ranch area. But I enhanced the color to reflect the early light of dawn to arrive at this: Diablo Canyon, Morning Glow, 18x24, oil. This sold at the Marigold Arts Gallery in Santa Fe. I then continued with he theme, but this time in my chosen venue of Cham...

Plein Air Artists of Colorado Featured Artist Article of October 2015: PAAC Article – Karen Halbert Short Bio:  Karen strives to transform the beauty of mathematics into her art, utilizing her knowledge of areas such as dynamic symmetry, fractals and chaos theory. The “hidden harmony” of Karen's work is shown in her cloud fractals, wave patterns and stream flows as well as cliff striations and tessellations. Karen grew up in the West, but moved East as an adult to attend college and pursue a career as a college professor of mathematics and computer science, and later as a Wall Street executive. She eventually settled in Woodstock, New York to fulfill her life-long dream of being an artist, but ultimately was drawn back West to the artist-rich town of Santa Fe. Karen continues to use her computer skills as a volunteer Website Administrator for the Plein Air Painters of New Mexico. When did you first become interested in art? As a child, I loved...

As I continue to pursue the underlying Mathematics in my painting I also am exploring making changes to my techniques. Not only will I consider the mathematical construction of my composition but also the juxtaposition of the abstract with the concrete.  This blog post will explain my use of a watercolor-like, abstract underpainting combined with the more concrete use of shapes with palette knife. Two years ago I observed the watercolor/pastel technique of Albert Handell and was intrigued. I finally tried this technique with oils alone, using Cobra's water-mixable oils.  At first I applied the paint thinly mixed with sufficient water. Then I began to paint primarily using a palette knife but also utilizing a brush for different effects, with thicker paint on top of the (dried) thin layer. These are my first two paintings based on this technique: both paintings were done with the assumption of the coloring of sunset during stormy skies. Sandias' Stages: The Sandias is ba...

Award presented at the opening show for the 2016 Plein Air Artists of Colorado Annual Show at the Mary Williams Gallery in Boulder, Colorado. Santa Fe River Turbulence , 10x16, oil ( Santa Fe River Turbulence  now hangs in my son's home, chosen by the family as their favorite of my paintings at that time.)  The history of this painting began during a Mentoring Program by Albert Handell in June 2015. I pointed out that the Santa Fe River was running, and so we painted there twice during the week.  The location is on Alameda on the southeast side of the river a block from Delgado Street. What a great location when the water is flowing. I enjoyed sitting and standing, painting and listening to the water babble as it flowed over the rocks, watching the neighborhood children and dogs frolicking in the waves.  My first two "en plein air" studies were during this program.: "Santa Fe River Flows I", oil, 6x12" (sold) "Santa Fe River Flows II",...