Congratulations to the August issue Creative Spark entries that took honorable mentions. The challenge was to put a neglected color to work. Here’s how the artists did so:


“Color is my passion, which is why I love pastels, and why I’ve used almost every color somewhere in my paintings. I often use turquoise, but the use is usually limited to a few minor strokes as a an accent or as a means of balancing out the greens in a landscape. However, making turquoise the dominate color in my painting is something I’ve definitely wanted to try. For several months I’ve been creating a series of Philadelphia scenes, mostly of landmarks and historic buildings—and, of course, a few Philly skylines.

“Since I was painting a hot and hazy afternoon scene of Philadelphia, I chose bright orange to exhibit very warm—but strong—light. I used different values of turquoise as the sky and water, sort of an envelope, which balanced out the orange. Then I softly glazed the whole painting with again with turquoise. Fun experiment!”




“Pink is a color I rarely use except for highlights in skies or around the rim of an object, rarely as the predominant color. I was very taken by a spray of very subtle pink grass behind three dark purple flowers. It was the pink background that caught my eye and presented the challenge of making it look soft, but not too sweet. Subtle hints of pink were added to the green background and in the foreground flowers to make the painting work.”




“I’ve been especially fascinated with the exotic pastels, which include metallic, iridescent, pearlescent and fluorescent colors. I tend to favor blues and purples, which is reflected in my home decor, my clothes and, of course, my painting. The one untouched color, pristine in its paper wrapping, was fluorescent lime green.

“I decided to paint an unusual perspective, an extreme close-up, of a common fruit, the kiwi. Once an exotic winter import from Australia, most kiwis are now grown in my home state of California. The crowning creative inspiration came from adding a few strokes of that virgin fluorescent lime green to the rear kiwi slice, which made the fruit just pop. This pastel became the main color focus for the front kiwi; the juicy fruit pulp glows with the fluorescent lime green. Adding this color to my palette truly unleashed creative sparks.”