Color Inspires Runners

Art is inspirational and valuable in many facets of life and society, including business, education, and entertainment. It is art that often stirs passion and gives many a reason for living. Indeed, our society is built partially on the foundation of the legacy of great artists and excellent works of art. But can art, or elements of art, inspire individuals in the fitness realm? It can and does. Just ask any individual involved in The Color Run™.

The Color Run™ is basically a three-mile run that is marked by bright, beautiful, and bold colors at various points in the course. The focus of The Color Run™ is not necessarily athletic ability, but “crazy color fun with friends and family.” The point of The Color Run™ is to take white t-shirt-clad runners and smear them with rainbow colors by the end of the 3-mile (5k) race.

There are only a couple of rules enforced by The Color Run™. One rule is that runners must begin the course wearing proper running attire, which in this case includes a plain white t-shirt. The second and last rule is that runners must be covered in color by the race’s end.

The Color Run™ uses different colors at specific kilometers (or COLOR RUN Zones) in the race. As athletes pass through the zones they become running works of art as Color Run™ workers “blitz” them with vibrant shades of color. The colors typically used are blue, orange, pink, and yellow. Apparently the colors employed by The Color Run™ are safe enough to eat, although it is not recommended.

There are plenty of The Color Run™ locations throughout the United States and Australia. A few of those locations include Salt Lake City, Portland, Cincinnati, Miami, Nashville, San Diego, Hawaii, Charlotte, and Orlando. There are many other locations as well. Registration for most of these events is still open, and individuals can register for The Color Run™ in their city by visiting http://thecolorrun.com/locations/.

Does art, or aspects of art, such as color, inspire you to greater levels of fitness? That’s what it’s doing for thousands of people throughout the world. There seems to truly be no limit to the ways art and color can benefit humanity.

Note: The images represented in this blog post do not belong to Segmation; they were found at http://www.insego.org/caluwe-test-what-color-are-you/ and http://neurorelays.wordpress.com/2012/06/28/color-psychology-of-consumer-decision-making/.

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Gilbert Stuart – American Portrait Painter

Have you ever wondered how George Washington’s image came to be on the United States one-dollar bill? The answer to this query can be found in the life of a man named Gilbert Stuart, a renowned American Portraitist.

Gilbert Stuart’s story began on December 3, 1755 in Rhode Island. Stuart’s father was a Scottish immigrant and his mother was a member of a prominent land- owning family. At the age of six Stuart moved, along with his family, to Newport Rhode Island. It was in Newport that Stuart first took an interest in art and began to demonstrate his abilities as an artist.

In 1770 Gilbert Stuart met a man named Cosmo Alexander. Alexander was a Portraitist himself and became Stuart’s tutor. Under Alexander’s tutelage, and at the mere age of 14, Stuart painted one of his most well known pieces titled, “Dr. Hunter’s Spaniels.”

A year after this fete, Stuart moved with Alexander to Scotland in order to finish his studies with the painter. Unfortunately, after only a year together in Scotland, Alexander died in Edinburgh. Stuart was left to make his own way as a Portraitist in Scotland. However, after a year of attempting to make a living as a painter with little success, Stuart moved back to Newport Rhode Island in 1773.

His return home coincided with the American Revolution leaving him little opportunity to pursue a career as a Portraitist. Due to this, Stuart once again left Rhode Island in the hopes of building a career, this time to England. England, it seems, was a wonderful place for Stuart’s career. He studied with Benjamin West, and by 1777 his work was on exhibit at the Royal Academy.

By 1787 Stuart had married Charlotte Coates. However, he had also found himself plagued by financial struggles; the result of extravagant living and poor bookkeeping. On more than one occasion, Stuart found himself escaping debtor’s prison. Thus, in 1793 he and his family moved back to the United States and settled in Germantown, Pennsylvania.

In Pennsylvania Stuart set up his own studio. Pennsylvania was also the place where Gilbert Stuart began his work on the famous portrait of George Washington in 1796. Interestingly, the portrait was never completed. Instead, Stuart kept the unfinished portrait and made copies which he sold for $100.00 a piece.

It is this popular image which appears on the United States one- dollar bill and has also appeared on postage stamps.

During his life, Stuart painted over one-thousand portraits. Having painted such a large amount of noble men and women in the United States he was declared the Father of American Portraiture. Stuart was popular not only for his talent but because of his knack for conversation. The individuals who sat for long hours as he painted their likeness found him entertaining, and it has been said that he did so to keep their expressions natural and unstructured.

Stuart himself preferred to paint bust, or half- length, portraits. He also favored dark or neutral colors for his backgrounds. He cared little for detailed accessories which he felt had the potential to distract from an individual’s facial features.

However, one of Stuart’s most famous pieces deviates from these preferences, yet still proves him to be remarkably talented. “The Skater (Portrait of William Grant)” is a portrait that depicts Grant engaged in the sport of ice skating. Unlike the formal bust portraits, this piece is of a man taking part in a rather vigorous activity. Stuart’s talent in this portrait is still praised today.

Popularity followed Gilbert Stuart throughout his life, but so too did financial woe. In 1824 Stuart suffered a stroke while living in Boston. He continued to paint until, at the age of 72, he passed away. Unable to afford a proper burial, the Stuart family was forced to lay Gilbert to rest in an unmarked grave.

There is, however, a memorial tablet on Boston Common bearing his name that stands in remembrance of the man and his famous, unfinished portrait of George Washington; in remembrance of the Father of American Portraiture.

This set contains 35 paintable patterns.

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Color Advances Science

Do you think the words color and science belong next to each other? Does it surprise you to know that colors actually advance science, and makes new discoveries possible?

It is rate to discuss color science because of its vastness in content, as well as its difficult-to-appreciate science related principles. So while putting a pin in the mechanics of color science for a moment, how can we view color as an opportunity to push science forward? Let’s take a look at asteroid Vesta.

Vesta is the second largest formation in the asteroid belt, considered by many scientists now to be a planet. In the past, dimensions considered Vesta to be too large to be an asteroid, but too small to be a planet, Vesta sat undefined in a sort of astrology limbo. All that is beginning to change because of color.

The image above was taken by NASA’s space orbiter Dawn, the first man made craft to orbit around Vesta. Dawn’s framing camera uses near-infrared filters where red, green, and blue represent varying degrees of nanometers. The colors are assigned by scientists and detect the presence of previously unknown mineral and rock types. What this has revealed is a well segregated world of ingredients and layers. The information suggest steep visible spectral slopes and areas of recent landslides that reveal craters and other mountainous regions.

With colors assigned to specific elements, it is now much easier for scientists to detect what lie on asteroids, planets, moons, and other objects floating around in our universe. With this ability of more intricate detection, it is more possible to theorize what went into the development of our solar system and the complex elements that support it.

By spotting water, mineral deposits, and other elements difficult to detect, the use of color has certainly broadened the spectrum of analysis scientists can employ when studying a subject in the vast reaches of space.

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Related articles

• Asteroid Vesta’s ‘Rainbow’ Ingredients Shine in New Image (livescience.com)
• New Images Of Vesta Asteroid Taken By NASA Spacecraft (huffingtonpost.com)
• New NASA dawn visuals show Vesta’s ‘color palette’ (physorg.com)

Sir Henry Raeburn – Scottish Portrait Painter

Sir Henry Raeburn (1756 -1823) was a successful Scottish portrait painter who lived in Edinburgh. His works are characterized by strong characterization, stark realism, and dramatic lighting effects. He typically employed clashing color combinations, and a course modeling technique. Our pattern set includes many of his portraits, including his most recognized work, The Skating Minister. Other portraits include Boy and Rabbit, Alexander Ranaldson MacDonell of Glengarry, Sir Walter Scott, Mrs. Robert Scott Moncrieff, and Sir John Sinclair. There’s also a self portrait included in the set.

This set contains 31 paintable patterns.

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The Evolution of Paint by Number

What holds you back from creating art? Is it time? Expenses? Experience? Perfectionism? These were some of the first thoughts that went into creating the Paint by Number kit — the perfect art activity that surpassed all excuses.

In 1950, commercial artist Dan Robbins, and entrepreneur Max S. Klein, invented the concept of painting by numbers. This new creation married an art form with a hobby; painting and jig-saw puzzles. The Craft Master product was sold by the Palmer Paint Company in Detroit, Michigan.

By 1954 over 12 million kits had been distributed all over the world. Each kit had two paint brushes and up to 90 paint colors. Different paints were given each a number. Included in the kit was a canvas complete with light blue or grey lines and number markings to guide the artist as to where to place the appropriate paint color.

Not only did this innovative product make, “Every man a Rembrandt,” it created a new pastime. Like any intriguing art project, many individuals (mostly adult females) found painting by numbers to have addictive qualities — in the best sense of the word, of course. By the time a mysterious image revealed the hills of a landscape, dynamic sea, cuddly pet or even Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper,” the artist was hooked.

However, not everyone looked at this as art work. Some critics laughed in disdain about what adults were filling their time with. But in the end, the educational value proved to be a positive selling point for the product. It was seen as a transitional item that introduced those interested in art to the tools and techniques necessary to flourish in the trade.

Not only did it open a creative outlet for individuals,  it offered attractive, homemade decorations. To this day completed works hang in museums and galleries. In 1993 the daughter of Max Klein donated the Paint by Number archives to the Smithsonian Museum of American History. It’s even said that Paint by Number kits, completed by White House staff members, were hung along a corridor of the West Wing.

Between idea conception and present day, the Paint by Number art phenomenon has come full circle. In the 1960s it was adopted into the realm of Pop Art. Then, in the 1970s the designs became more abstract to fit the maturing tastes of art enthusiasts. By the 1990s, Paint by Number was looking for ways to regain a footing in the craft market of America; a telephone survey led them to create the “America’s Most Wanted” kit. Around this time, numerous children’s art companies, like Crafthouse and Janlynn started to produce Paint by Number kits for kids; there are even designs inspired by Disney Characters.

With the advent of virtual technology, it seemed only natural that Paint by Number programs become available through a computer. This is the type of innovative thinking that encouraged SegPlay, a color by number kit fit for your computer. Like Paint by Number kits, it is accessible at anytime, you can leave and return to your design as you choose, and it has the good addictive qualities that will fulfill leisure pastime. Also, like the Paint by Number phenomenon, SegPlay is always looking for new ways to serve artists. This is why Segmation SegPlayPC is evolving.

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What are your Summer Colors?

Thinking about summer usually evokes thoughts of vibrant colors and warm temperatures. In fact, mental flashes with shades of yellow, sky blue and soft orange can be tormenting during drab winter months. Let’s face it, a 90 degree summer day is the only appropriate time to pull out the yellow linen table cloth, light blue Bahama-shorts and fill your drink glass with colorful fruits.

So, we have to ask: What are your summer colors?

In Martha Stewart’s 60 Days of Color 2011, she shares 19 colorful images that are sure to spawn ideas about how you can incorporate summer colors into your warm days. After flipping through some of the pictures, Martha’s favorite summer colors become apparent.

Summer Colors according to Martha Stewart

• Dramatic Yellow
• Martha Stewart repeatedly uses yellow as her primary color. To compliment this shade she pairs it with a variety of greens. The yellow has a deep tone, closer to a shade of mustard, and nowhere near the color of a street sign. This allows her to use the summer color in large, solid amounts. However, the shade can also carry an entire design and dominate the swirling motion of flower patterns. No matter how it is used, this deep shade of yellow adds brightness to a room without overwhelming the eyes.

• Shades of Blue
• Martha Stewart uses a myriad of blue shades in her collection of summer colors. She often uses light blues to cover large background areas, such as walls, bedspreads and curtains. This allows light to flow through the room and reflect off of dramatic blue accents. Various pieces that are dark blue include throw blankets, vases and paint trim.

• Orange: the soft and the bold
• In her 2011 collection of summer colors, Martha Stewart features some bold rooms with bright accents. Perhaps she does this because her readers spend so much time surrounded by dark colors in those drab winter months. The bold rooms photographed are filled with burnt orange, dark woods and deep greens. Something she uses to splash these dark settings with summer color are light orange accents, soft peach center pieces and lots of complimentary candle light.

Martha Stewart has named her summer colors. Have you chosen yours?

There is still time to pick your 2011 summer colors. Immerse yourself in a world of color by doing a leisure summer activity. Paint by number with Segmation is certain to bring out the color expert in you.

Image made available by Shahram Sharif on Flickr through Creative Common License

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Colors Change What is Beautiful

What is beautiful? The term is a bit subjective, don’t you think? After all, isn’t beauty in the eye of the beholder?

It most certainly is, but one undeniable quality about color is its ability to make all things beautiful!

This is why color-field painting, with its abstract merging of vivid colors, is responsible for some beautiful works of art.  In this post we will look at how color-field painting evokes emotions and has the ability to change an environment.

By now we know how color impacts art and also stirs emotion in people. Recent posts discuss color therapy, known as chromotherapy and the psychology of color, offering insight into how color can impact an individual.  As artists, we know the emotional impact art can have on us. Vivid colors can stir emotions and hold an observers heart once they pass.

Sometimes, color makes beautiful what was not beautiful before. This is the case of color-field painting; color, shape, composition, proportion, balance, style, and scale change a blank canvas into a brilliant work of art.

This style of art is very abstract and those who are best known for its development are considered Abstract Expressionists.  Color-field painting emerged in New York in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s. It was a type of art inspired by European modernism and made popular by artists like Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman.

What sets color-field painting apart from other types of abstract art is the artist’s regard for paint.  With the main focus being color, shape, composition, proportion, balance, style, and scale, there is less emphasis on gesture, brushstrokes and consistent actions that create form and process.  In fact, the entire work of art is created by the artist who determines what elements he or she will add to convey a sense of place, atmosphere, or environment. In other words, what makes color-field painting beautiful, is its subjectivity.

Like most art, the beauty of color-field painting is in the eye of the beholder.  These colorful pieces are nice accents for decoration and fun to paint too! But don’t let the look of simplicity fool you.  This style is not easy to perfect and contrary to how it appears, cannot be replicated by a 6 year old!

Have you splashed your art palette with color today?  Try it and see how color changes what you see as beautiful.

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If you enjoyed this Segmation blog post, we’re sure you’ll like:

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• What Color Should You Paint Your Home?

https://segmation.wordpress.com/2012/12/21/what-color-should-you-paint-your-home/

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A Summer Activity for Leisure Days

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Summer days are notorious for bright sun, hot temperatures and endless activities. The irony here is that summer days are also supposed to be days of leisure. This is why lounging around inside is okay even when the sun is bright. In fact, one of the most enjoyable things about a summer day is air conditioning!

Indoor summer activities often consist of watching television, sitting on the computer and working around the house. It is challenging to find a leisure activity that is also mind stimulating. This is why Segmation offers the perfect summer activity for all ages.

Paint by Numbers

Since the 1950’s, paint by numbers has been known as a leisure past time and summer activity.  It became popular when people began making more money, working fewer hours and increasing the amount they shopped. As a result, people purchased items to use in their free time. With consumers buying items like TV sets, barbeque grills and paint by numbers kits, these popular past times became better known as “new leisure.” To this day, paint by numbers, among the rest, are still a favorite past time, even though they all have new faces.

The Artist in Everyone

© Kara Allyson: Flickr

Paint by numbers is not just a great past time; it allows anyone to become an artist. Even a clumsy hobbyist can paint the perfect picture. This is why the box tops of paint by numbers kits formerly proclaimed “Every man a Rembrandt.” While every person can craft the perfect picture with paint by numbers, different levels of expertise offer this leisure activity at any skill level.

Now you have it all; all you need are leisure summer days to awaken the artist in you. The virtual paint by numbers program, Segmation, will turn you into a Rembrandt, or at the very least, a graphic design artist. Enjoy picking colors, following a pattern and watching your masterpiece appear on screen. With Segmation, this leisure activity awaits your next air conditioned summer day.

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Do you love Cats?

Cats are great to use in Art! Aren’t cats cuddly, cute, calm, curious, playful, as well as finicky. Cats are among our most popular pets. They come in numerous breeds and coat patterns including Tuxedo (bicolor), Tabby (marbled), Calico (Tortoiseshell), Colorpoint (Siamese), and white. Photorealistic patterns of colorful felines in an assortment of poses and expressions are fun to enjoy painting and so relaxing! Some find cats even cutie! Cats can be found in different kinds of art where there are many great shots of them playing, staring, yawning, and just being curious.

I wonder if our cats know we love them? I know that my cat does. One thing that is for sure they make good companions and they are so sweet! My cat is very affectionate. I think that cats aren’t too much of a hassle to take care of. I don’t see people walking my neighborhood with their cat besides them.

Cats make it fun to paint! I love relaxing and painting cats on my Windows computer! I hope you do as well.

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Giotto di Bondone – Father of European Painting (www.segmation.com)

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Giotto di Bondone (c. 1267 – 1337), known simply as Giotto, was a Florentine painter and architect. He is now considered the first great master of the Italian Renaissance and the founder of modern European painting. Giotto’s natural and realistic style broke away from the symbolism of Byzantine art and was the catalyst that marked the start of the Renaissance.

Giotto was born in a small hamlet north of Florence. His father was a farmer and Giotto probably spent much of his youth as a shepherd. According to art historian Giorgio Vasari, the renowned Florentine artist, Cimabue, who was the last great painter in the Byzantine style, discovered the young Giotto drawing pictures of sheep on a rock. Cimabue was so impressed by the young boy’s talent that he immediately took him on as an apprentice. That story may be apocryphal but by around 1280 Giotto was working in Florence and by 1312 he was a member of the Florentine Guild of doctors and apothecaries, a guild that also included painters. He traveled to Rome with Cimabue and may well have worked on some of the master’s commissions.

Giotto signed his name to just three paintings. All other attributions to him are speculative and the unresolved controversy has raged through the art world for over a hundred years. Nevertheless, his work stands at the brink of a new age in art. He concentrated on representing human emotions, people in everyday situations, and capturing the human experience through his art.

Although he lacked the technical knowledge of perspective, he created a convincing three-dimensional pictorial space. His genius was immediately recognized by his contemporaries; he was lauded by great philosophers, writers and thinkers of his day, among them Dante and Boccaccio. Under Giotto’s leadership the old, stylized Byzantine art forms slowly disappeared from Florence, and later from other Italian cities. His freedom of expression influenced artists of the early and high Renaissance, and changed the course of European painting.

One of Giotto’s finest works is the series of frescoes painted 1304-1305 for the Scrovegni chapel in Padua, usually known as the Arena Chapel. The 37 scenes depict the lives of Christ and the Virgin Mary and are considered to be one of the masterpieces of the Early Renaissance. The figures in his paintings interact, gossip, and look at each other.

From 1306 to 1311 Giotto was in Assisi where some art historians believe he painted the fresco cycle of the Life of St. Francis. Although the style of the frescoes is realistic and breaks away from the Byzantine stylization, the controversy is caused by the stylistic differences between the St. Francis and Arena Chapel frescoes. Documents that could have proved the origin of the commissions were destroyed by Napoleon’s troops when they occupied the town in the early 19th century.

Giotto received commissions from princes and high officials of the church in Florence, Naples and Rome. Most scholars agree that he painted the frescoes in the Church of the Santa Croce in Florence and although he never signed the Ognissanti Madonna altarpiece, the Florentine work is universally recognized as being by him. It is known that Giotto was in Florence from 1314-1327 and the large panel painting depicting the Virgin was painted around 1310. The face of the Virgin is so expressive that it may well have been painted using a live model.

Towards the end of his life, Giotto was assigned to build the Campanile of the Florence Cathedral. In 1334 he was named chief architect and, although the Campanile is known as “Giotto’s Tower,” it was probably not built to his design specifications.

Giotto died in January, 1337. Even his burial place is surrounded by mystery. Vasari believed he was buried in the Cathedral of Florence, while other scholars claimed he was buried in the Church of Santa Reparata. But Giotto left an artistic legacy that could not be ignored. His disciples, Bernardo Daddi and Taddeo Gaddi continued in the master’s tradition and, a century later, the artistic torch lit by Giotto was passed on to Michelangelo and Raphael, the great masters of the High Renaissance.

Giotto made a radical break from the Byzantine (abstract – anti-naturalistic) style and brought more life to art. Giotto primarily painted Christian themes depicted in cycles and is best known for his frescos in various Chapels (Arene Chapel, Florence Cathedral, Assisi, Scrovegni).

Our pattern set collection features many of his more familiar works including the Ognissanti Madonna, The Mourning of Christ, The Marriage at Cana, The Mourning of St. Francis, Crucifixion and Madonna and Child.

Giotto di Bondone

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