The Broad Ripple Art Fair was held yesterday. It is one of the largest Art Fairs in Indiana and probably the Midwest. They have 225 artists, 10 Galleries, four stages with live music, great food and a large kids area. It is held on the grounds of the Indianapolis Art Center where I take classes. I was asked to demo at the fair so for 3 hours yesterday afternoon I drew, painted, talked with families, entertained the young ones and shared ideas with visiting artists. It was a great experience. I had three watercolors “cooking” during the demo. I wanted to show that watercolor is not just pastel colors so I did the following abstract. I have been working on a series of paintings that use only primary colors since I started painting in 2007. This little guy is Primary Colors #8. I made some technical errors but you get the idea and it communicated my thought really well. Some folks were really surprised by the deep color and the use of watercolor for bold abstracts.
Primary Colors #8, Broad Ripple Art Fair Demo
I also had two soft, pastel, traditional florals going – a dogwood and an iris. I have the background for the dogwood fairly complete so I am going to show it but the iris is still in its infancy. It was really a great day.
Dogwood (in process), Demo Broad Ripple Art Fair
Linda Halcomb's Blog 
What a wonderful day.You must have felt “in your element”! I love both of your examples and I never really broke watercolor down into segments like this and found it fascinating as an educating tool. I am continually drawn to this medium because so much can be done with it and it is refreshing to know of times when people get the word out there! Bravo, Linda!
Thanks Leslie! I did not go to the Fair today and I am really sad that the soggy weather probably cut attendance. I always try to push myself to look at watercolor in different ways and watercolor is so versatile and so beautiful!
Sounds like a great day, Linda! I love that you showed watercolor in it’s bolder state. I use very saturated color often, in watercolors. Your dogwood is looking wonderful. I wish I could do that! 🙂
Thanks for the kind words Beth! Dogwood is at the stage where the next steps will make or break it. I put it off until tomorrow when I have most of the day free!
That color is so rich in the first piece!
Thank you for visiting. Light and color are my real interests so I try to have fun with them.
Linda,
I loved your two painting demonstrations. I believe you find the opportunity to “perform” before an audience stimulating.
It was fun and surprisingly easy. I just did what I love doing.
Linda, I love following your blog! The two biggest reasons: your progress is so remarkable and you model incredible discipline. We didn’t get to attend the BR Art Fair, unfortunately, but I know the patrons appreciated your demos and collaborative manner. The primary color geometric painting is a fresh, bold look and I liked the slightly blurred lines, too.
I never did any study of colors before, your primary colors shines through really well. May be one day i should try the wheel of colors too.
Thank you, Francis, In 2009 I felt like I needed to improve my knowledge of the basics – color and composition particularly – so I took two drawing and composition classes. I also worked my way through two books on color theory, one by Betty Edwards and one by Stephen Quiller. I was finishing my work with the Quiller book eary this year and you can see some of my exercises in January and February on my blog. This study was very valuable. I do not use the knowledge intuitively yet but I do think about what I learned everytime I paint.
Hi Linda, two dramatically different paintings (ok, I know the dogwood isn’t finished, but still…) I like how you were able to show the many difference faces of watercolor.
Sounds like you were busy, but having a great time at the fair.
The dogwood painting is absolutely beautiful. The unfinished dogwood would look amazing as a textile! I can imagine it on a summer dress.
Beautiful work!