It all started by meeting this wonderful lady who told me one day “Wait! You are into Color? You need to meet my friend, Gabe! He is a painter who makes his own paint colors!”
How can I refuse this How So Tempting invite?!?
Not only the idea of meeting a painter is excellently exciting, but the fact that he is also a color-making master, now THAT is something!
So yes, last week I met Gabe. And let me tell you, it was magical.
I was excited already that his studio is located in an Art Space I had just discovered the day before (Coincidence??) but then I entered his studio and wow!
The walls on the left are completely covered with various portraits.
Gabe has been painting for about 30 years now, and his realism techniques are absolutely mind-blowing. I have gotten lost in the incredible precision of his paintings, the ruffles of the delicate garments, the textures of the skins, the “so-real-looking” hair!
Gabe explains to me how he created one artwork’s background color, appearing to look black but in reality being several layers of dark green and dark red. Working with this concept of layering has given his work such a unique vibrancy, an illusion of gentle movement. It seems the portrait's characters are alive, softly whispering and the background seems to be moving.
On the right, his library of (magic) books about Art and the history of color making. And below the books…… shelves and shelves of raw pigments containers, stacked on each other. Gabe seems to have it all, from old reds to new blues.
One of the first things that Gabe says to me is “wanna play with pigments?” Clearly, Gabe knows the way to my heart already!
He only works with pigments before 1700, and that requires him to plan ahead and to know all about how the pigment’s quality is going to shift with time.
He shows me his endless collection of mini papers color charts illustrating how the canvas takes on each color from ‘full saturation to tinted’ scale. This, between my fingers, is years and years of indexing and identifying colors. Incredible!
Can we just look at these for hours, please??
The quality of the color is incredible. Just like what I usually say about natural dyes, all these naturally sourced pigments create colors that all perfectly pair together. There is no wrong way to go. They just seem to be dancing together and all harmonies or combos are enchanting. And you know I shuffled and dealt the color chips for about an hour!
And then Gabe says again “Let’s play with the pigments!”. Now I know, he is not just being polite, it is time to play folks!
We experimented with the Natural Ochre and some rare pigments from:
I am so hypnotized witnessing pigments transforming into ink as they meet their binder.
That’s it, folks, I made it to the Brooklyn Color Paradise!
Thank you so much, Gabe for this memorable visit.
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