Jude Kai

Conscious Palette

In this post, I’m sharing a fun way to build an interesting palette of colors for a new painting.

OK, I’m not one of those artists who uses only three colors and then mixes them to produce every other color in their painting. That’s very impressive, but it’s just not me. When paints are on sale, I like try out new hues and experiment with those, mixing them with one, then another of my “old” favorites to get a range of new and exciting colors. With each new mix, I swipe a palette knife into the paint and add it to an ongoing sample sheet. Next to the swatch, I jot a quick note of what went into it. These sheets are really helpful when I’m looking for that perfect color to add to a painting that I’m working on.
            Here’s a shot of one of my sample sheets where I’m working to produce natural-looking earth and vegetation hues. Note the sequence of colors--I start out by mixing two colors, then I add a third into the mix and swipe that onto the sheet as the next swatch, and so on:



While the sample sheets are helpful,  I’ve come up with a fun way to plan out some new color palettes before  you begin painting:

1. Pick a mood, scene, or subject matter and think about the full range of colors that you’d like to consider using. Pull those colors from your paint supply. (Obviously, black and white can be part of any palette if you wish). If you're not sure about what colors look best together, check the end of this post for some helpful links.

2. Using a sheet of watercolor paper or heavy white stock, place a daub of one of your colors at the top and use a palette knife to spread it into a 1” by 1/2” swatch. Write the name of the color beneath it. If you want, you can use a moist paper towel to gently wipe off some of the color at one side to show a “wash” of that color. Repeat this for each of your choices until you have several rows of swatches. Remember that you want to keep an open mind, so don’t hesitate to pick colors that you think might be interesting. You’re not going to have to use all of them the first time out!

Example: I wanted to create some palettes that are mostly neutral in feel. So I pulled greys, beiges, creams, and very soft pastels--some warm, others cool. Then I pulled darker hues that could increase my tonal range. I threw in a few brighter hues for accent colors.
         Here’s what my color sheets looked like for the neutrals. Yes, I pulled some colors that might raise eyebrows, but since I’m experimenting, what’s the harm? They might make good accent colors. And remember I can tone down any color with black, or create a lighter shade by adding white.

3. With a pair of scissors, cut up the sheet into individual swatches. Be sure to cut across the top of each color (and down the side if you want) to create a color edge--a white margin will prevent you from really seeing how the colors look next to one another.

4. Now play around, combining colors….Start with two that look good together, then expand to three, adding, subtracting, exchanging swatches until you build several groups of 4-5 colors that you can arrange as shown. After you’ve played a bit, you’ll be able to tell what seems to work together. You might even come up with some surprisingly interesting combinations.                                                 
        Here’s what I came up with (I’ll probably add some of my previously-mixed colors to these groups):


5. While you have them grouped, write down a list of what colors are in each group for future reference. You can paper-clip your groups and keep them in an envelope or container to refer to while painting. You’ll have a lot of swatches left over, but you can come back to them after you’ve tried out your new palette combinations. Have Fun and let me know how it works for you!

6. Helpful Links: If you’d like some help with selecting colors, here are links to two excellent color-picking aids online:
            Sessions College for Professional Design
               Color Wheel Calculator: https://www.sessions.edu/color-calculator/
            Palleton.com Color planner: https://paletton.com/#uid=75A0v0kpDoBjMNTkOr-ssjXth6h

Turning to Art from Science: Thrills and Terrors Part 2

In my previous post, I discussed some of the advantages that people who have technical training bring to the practice of art. But there are disadvantages, too: Spontaneity, freedom of expression, “letting loose,” and trying crazy things just for the heck of it—These are not so easy for us with technical backgrounds.  

For example, did you know that a biologist designing a research project has to plan out everything in advance? They have to pre-determine:

• what species they’re going to study,
• what time of year they’re going to collect their data,
• where they’re going to set up their study sites,
• the ages and sexes of the animals they’ll be observing,
• how they’re going to take measurements,
• what statistical tests they plan to use to analyze their data.

So every step of the entire project is mapped out in advance, and there’s no changing methodologies midstream.

While earning my own degrees in Environmental Science and
Biology never stopped me from being a creative thinker,
it sure didn’t prepare me for becoming an artist. You might
think with all my education, I would feel confident in switching
over to an “easy” pursuit like painting, but the actual
experience was just the opposite.

I took one three-day painting class in November 2017. Before I walked into that classroom, I didn’t even know what gesso was. But I had a great teacher, and YouTube, and I was on my way. I quickly learned an important lesson:

   The only way to become a painter is to paint.

This simple maxim doesn’t convey the struggle, the terror, the fear of failure that I felt starting out (mixed of course with a lot of passion and determination). Unlike the entirely pre-planned experience of doing research and teaching college courses, painting felt for me like that Indy-Jones movie where you are poised on the edge of a bottomless abyss, and your only option is to take a deep breath and place one foot out over the edge and hope that you don’t fall screaming into nothingness. The next step is just as scary and exciting. And the next. There’s no path mapped out. No certainty of success. And in my case, even though I knew I wanted to paint abstracts, I had absolutely no idea how I was ever going to paint GOOD ones.

So I tried lots of different techniques. I painted on paper, on canvas board, on panel, on small cheap canvases, then bigger ones. I have had enough successes to convince me that I’m progressing, but I still don’t feel like I’ve arrived. But that’s ok, as a trained scientist, I know that art and science have one important thing in common: There’s always more to learn.

So what about you? I and the other readers would enjoy learning your story. Did you come from a technical background before you became an artist? Was your transition easy (a relief?) or difficult (harder than you thought), and why? Any advice you'd like to offer based on your experience? We'd love to hear from you!

Science, Art, and the Integrated Brain. Part I

This whole right brain/left brain controversy is really a non-starter for some people. Especially women. Did you know that in women, the connection between the right and left hemispheres of the brain (called the corpus callosum) is much bigger than that in males?

That explains two things that I’ve observed in my life:

          1) that men are much more capable of compartmentalized thinking than women
(i.e. “this affair I’m having here has nothing to do with the marriage I’m having there.”), and

          2) women are better integrated thinkers. In my opinion, women are better at integrating their thinking with their emotions and their social connections (consciously). It’s not to say that men’s emotions don’t affect their thinking…rather, men aren’t quite as adept at recognizing it when they do.

As a scientist turned artist, I’ve been delighted to meet other women who came to art from careers in science, medicine, and business where required skills are usually relegated to the other side of their brain from art. One woman is a geologist turned glass fuser, another designed engines for rockets—now she designs collages. A third had a job as a biochemist, a fourth was a NASA mechanic, a fifth was a nurse—they all ended up as practicing artists.

I’m sure that any group of women artists over fifty will have a surprisingly large component of science, medicine, business and tech professionals who’ve had really challenging and rewarding careers. I’m also willing to guess that many if not most of them also (secretly) cherished a love of drawing, painting, or viewing art. After becoming a success in a laboratory, hospital, business or academic setting, they are now returning to one of the earliest loves of their lives—art.  

There are many advantages in having a scientific or technical background when switching over to art. For example, we (female and male) scientists (I have a Ph.D. in Biology and have taught at the university level) can bring critical thinking and scientific rigor into our artistic practices. We experiment: we test materials, tools, and techniques.  We’re good at taking notes and keeping records of what works and what doesn’t. Some of us are really good at explaining things and teaching others. We’re used to motivating ourselves to be productive.

And in certain aspects of producing art, such as the mechanics of glassblowing, the physics governing the behavior of glass heating in a kiln, the chemical properties of pigments, or the technical aspects of welding or casting sculptures, people with a mechanical bent of mind tend to excel, be they male or female.

So science can be a good foundation to have when going into art. But if you’ve been solely an artist since birth, and just the memory of every science and math class you had to take in school still makes you cringe, no need to feel bad.

This whole post has focused on the upside. There’s a downside. I’ll talk about that in my next post.

Welcome to My Blog!

Whether you’ve walked in my door by accident, or just to browse, or because you really want to be here, it doesn’t matter: I’m delighted you’re here.

My name is Jude Kai, Kai as in Hawaiian for ocean, Jude as in Saint Jude, patron saint of lost causes and hopeless cases. I have a checkered career, but the notable part is that I started making art more than two decades ago. First it was stained glass, then fused glass, then dichroic glass, then jewelry, then vessels, and now (for the past 2-1/2 years), I’m painting in acrylics. Expressive Abstracts, Magical Landscapes, Reflections on Water, things like that. My brand-new website is called Jude Kai Art and you're more than welcome to drop by there and actually see what I do (http://www.judekaiart.com).

I admit it; I’m addicted to beauty, and I love making beautiful things that stir your soul, or give you strength, or make you feel good things.

I also am a writer, and a biologist, and a former college educator, so in this blog I’ll be sharing both my thoughts and what I’m learning in my journey to become an artist. If you love art, or Nature, or the ocean, I invite you to come along with me and let’s enjoy our time together!