Training The Visual Memory Part II~ Color

The Critique
~

Color is to me, the most delicious aspect of painting. The ability to recall intriguing color arrangements is a most helpful tool for the artist. The following exercise will help train the eye and mind to memorize color.

It’s best to start with single colors. Choose flat colored papers to begin. A box of Color Aid paper is ideal but a bit expensive. If you plan to do other color exercises it is worth the investment, otherwise any colored paper with a variety of hues will do.

I think oil paints are the best to use for this practice because the color you mix will be what you see when you compare it to that which you are trying to recall. Tempera changes value as it dries and watercolor, being transparent, is greatly influenced by its ground.

Cover the table you are working on with a grey cloth or paper. If you don’t have grey, black is the next best choice. Have your paints, brushes, 4 x 4 squares of illustration board and anything else that you need ready but out of your immediate visual field.

Place the color you are trying to memorize in front of you on the table and focus on it for 3 minutes. Close your eyes, remove the paper, and mix what you just saw. Paint the illustration board. When you are finished, take out the original paper and compare them. Ask yourself 3 questions~ should it be lighter or darker, warmer or cooler, duller or brighter?

Put this aside and try another color. A good strategy is to choose 3 or 4 colors and practice these for a week or until you can mix them exactly. Try another set the following week. Once matching simple flat colors is achieved, more sophisticated memory exercises for color combinations can be approached.

~

Boston Artist, Melody Phaneuf is well known for her evocative still life, landscape, and portrait paintings. Her paintings are regularly on view at The Guild of Boston Artists, 162 Newbury Street; at Fenway Studios, Boston by appointment; and North Shore Art in Gloucester from May through October. Phaneuf ‘s paintings have been exhibited at The National Arts Club in New York City, Galerie Herouet in Paris, and with Art du Monde, in Japan.

Melody The Artist Home, founded with photographer and color specialist, Martha DiMeo, features Phaneuf’s original oil paintings on tumbled marble tile murals and beverage coasters, fine art prints, and handmade note cards.

Make Your Life a Work of Art~
Online shopping at MelodyTheArtist.com/shop

Download our free 2010 Calendar
Commission a painting
Be a facebook fan of MelodyTheArtist.com
Follow MelodyTheArtist on twitter

Rhythms of Spring

Rhythms And Roses by Melody Phaneuf, 25 x17 oil painting
~

The first day of spring was warm and sunny, inspiring sleeping bulbs to push green tips through the ground. There is a softness in the atmosphere. Gray branches show hints of pink and green. People are beginning to smile.

Rhythms and Roses is an ode to spring. Warm, delicate pinks and cool greens dominate the color scheme, echoing gently into the ivory background. The high key of the painting celebrates the return of light.

Textures abound, creating lively rhythms that cause our eyes to dance through the picture. Patterns spiral throughout giving a sense of growth.

Rhythms And Roses is part of a cycle of four paintings, each celebrating a season of the year.

Rhythms And Roses, 25 x17 oil painting by Melody Phaneuf, $2700
The Rhythms Series is available in open edition prints and handmade note cards.

~

Boston Artist, Melody Phaneuf is well known for her evocative still life, landscape, and portrait paintings. Her paintings are regularly on view at The Guild of Boston Artists, 162 Newbury Street; at Fenway Studios, Boston by appointment; and North Shore Art in Gloucester from May through October. Phaneuf ‘s paintings have been exhibited at The National Arts Club in New York City, Galerie Herouet in Paris, and with Art du Monde, in Japan.

Melody The Artist Home, founded with photographer and color specialist, Martha DiMeo, features Phaneuf’s original oil paintings on tumbled marble tile murals and beverage coasters, fine art prints, and handmade note cards.

Make Your Life a Work of Art~
Online shopping at MelodyTheArtist.com/shop

Download our free 2010 Calendar
Commission a painting
Be a facebook fan of MelodyTheArtist.com
Follow MelodyTheArtist on twitter

~

Relics of The Sea

Relics Of The Sea, 32 x 24 oil painting by Melody Phaneuf
~

You can hear waves still pounding from yesterday’s northeaster. I wonder what formerly hidden treasures will be discovered on the shore today, exhumed by the sea~

There is something mysterious about the painting, Relics Of The Sea. The intermediate key sets a penumbral mood. The color scheme is a transitional one, gradating watery hues. And the objects hold a silent story.

I love the idea of the ocean as symbol of the unconscious, the misty world of almost recognized, yet ineffable truths. The sea marks a threshold between the world of solidity and a fluid, elusive plane.

Finding such parallels between objects and ideas is what fascinates me about painting still life. Like distant foghorns, Relics Of The Sea echoes on both the decorative and allegorical levels.

Relics Of The Sea, 32 x 24 oil painting by Melody Phaneuf, $7500

~

Boston Artist, Melody Phaneuf is well known for her evocative still life, landscape, and portrait paintings. Her paintings are regularly on view at The Guild of Boston Artists, 162 Newbury Street; at Fenway Studios, Boston by appointment; and North Shore Art in Gloucester from May through October. Phaneuf ‘s paintings have been exhibited at The National Arts Club in New York City, Galerie Herouet in Paris, and with Art du Monde, in Japan.

Melody The Artist Home, founded with photographer and color specialist, Martha DiMeo, features Phaneuf’s original oil paintings on tumbled marble tile murals and beverage coasters, fine art prints, and handmade note cards.

Make Your Life a Work of Art~
Online shopping at MelodyTheArtist.com/shop

Download our free 2010 Calendar
Commission a painting
Be a facebook fan of MelodyTheArtist.com
Follow MelodyTheArtist on twitter

~

Training The Visual Memory, Part I

Comment pouvez-vous faire, cela?
~

Visual memory is a fountain of artistic imagination, a collection of stored observations. The careful analysis of visual forces becomes a lens through which subsequent experience can be filtered.

How does one develop visual memory? Practice drawing both on paper and in the imagination. Memorizing simple shapes is a good way to start. Focus the attention on outline and proportion. Gradually increase complexity of shape to three dimensions by adding value, that is, light and shadow.


Begin with an image you wish to memorize, tracing paper, drawing paper, ruler and pencil. Measure your image and draw a box of the same dimensions on your paper. In the beginning, drawing diagonals corner to corner on both your image and in the box will help to aid your memory.

Have no distractions. Look at your image for 3 minutes with complete focus, then turn it over and draw it in the box from memory. Go as far as you can. Try closing your eyes for a minute if retrieving the image is difficult.

When you feel complete, turn the image over and compare. Trace the image and the boundaries of the box it is in. Line this box up with the box drawn on the paper to see where your drawing is off. Trace your image in another color or use a dotted line to differentiate. Date this tracing.

Repeat this exercise every day for a week and note your improvement. Increase the complexity of the images and gradually shorten the time you give yourself to memorize and recreate. Ultimately, you want the process to be instantaneous.

~

Boston Artist, Melody Phaneuf is well known for her evocative still life, landscape, and portrait paintings. Her paintings are regularly on view at The Guild of Boston Artists, 162 Newbury Street; at Fenway Studios, Boston by appointment; and North Shore Art in Gloucester from May through October. Phaneuf ‘s paintings have been exhibited at The National Arts Club in New York City, Galerie Herouet in Paris, and with Art du Monde, in Japan.

Melody The Artist Home, founded with photographer and color specialist, Martha DiMeo, features Phaneuf’s original oil paintings on tumbled marble tile murals and beverage coasters, fine art prints, and handmade note cards.

Make Your Life a Work of Art~
Online shopping at MelodyTheArtist.com/shop

Download our free 2010 Calendar
Commission a painting
Be a facebook fan of MelodyTheArtist.com
Follow MelodyTheArtist on twitter

~

Petit Andelys

Petit Andelys, 20 x 16 oil painting by Melody Phaneuf
~

How heavenly it is to paint in France! My travel journal reminds me that on this journey I followed a meandering course from Paris through Normandy, making my way to Giverny. Vernon, Pont Audemer, Les Andelys, Honfleur and Rouen were all stopovers along this splendid choice of route.

Petit Andelys was painted as I wandered the adorable villages about Giverny. I recall how breezy it was that day, in late March. I set up here, lured by the music piped throughout the village, and found it a most agreeable spot to paint. The sun-drenched stone shops formed a perfect backdrop for rippling flags on harbor boats.

Petit Andelys is a gentle village, where cups of sorbet are sold from quirky blue trucks and all the color of the world sparkles in harbor reflections. I am certain to return here and paint again one day. I hope that when I do, the music is still playing.

Petit Andelys, 20 x 16 oil painting by Melody Phaneuf, is also available in open edition print, marble beverage coasters, and handmade note cards.

Petit Andelys is our featured painting for March, and the image chosen for our free calendar download.

~

Boston Artist, Melody Phaneuf is well known for her evocative still life, landscape, and portrait paintings. Her paintings are regularly on view at The Guild of Boston Artists, 162 Newbury Street; at Fenway Studios, Boston by appointment; and North Shore Art in Gloucester from May through October. Phaneuf ‘s paintings have been exhibited at The National Arts Club in New York City, Galerie Herouet in Paris, and with Art du Monde, in Japan.

Melody The Artist Home, founded with photographer and color specialist, Martha DiMeo, features Phaneuf’s original oil paintings on tumbled marble tile murals and beverage coasters, fine art prints, and handmade note cards.

Make Your Life a Work of Art~
Online shopping at MelodyTheArtist.com/shop

Download our free 2010 Calendar
Commission a painting of your favorite landscape
Be a facebook fan of MelodyTheArtist.com
Follow MelodyTheArtist on twitter

~