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Although there was never a time in my life that I was not making some form of art, after my four children were off at school, I decided to go back to college to get my degree and see what I could see that would inform my work.
At that time at the University of Pennsylvania they taught Josef Alber's course the interaction of color. Neil Welliver, then the head of the department of Fine Arts went to Yale where Albers taught. As a result the thrust of the department was a combination of the Bauhaus courses of Albers and painting outside from nature. Welliver painted outside in Maine. My instructor in painting was Rackstraw Downs who paints very large panoramic views of New York while sitting on the street. I have been painting nature and examining color ever since.
In the Alber's course it is necessary to see the way one color changes another when they are juxtaposed in order to complete various exercises. It is really the only class in art I have ever taken that taught something that is not subjective. You see it or you don't, but it really does happen.
This changing color felt like music to me. Could there be a way to present colors in a sequence that would move the emotions the way music does?
Gould's Hill
Neil Welliver
80th Street and Broadway
Rackstraw Downs
....to be continued
Please share with anyone you think might be interested.
