I was looking at pictures on the internet this morning and I seem to be attracted to a lot of sunset colors. Those rich pinks and yellows and sometimes purple-pink displays rolling across the sky are awesome. Here is a picture I took of a sunset last winter and what do you see? Pink and Yellow. Even my wardrobe has a lot of purple and pink colors in it. 
I can remember a time when all I wore was blue shirts of varying shades.
Talk about stuck in a rut. When I look at some of my recent works there seems to be a common thread, sunset colors featuring pink, yellow and blue. I use these colors a lot when I am not stretching myself to try new things. I think it is because painting on fabric can be a very tricky sometimes when you are applying paint values. For one I find it challenging to cover one paint color with another like you would do on a regular paint canvas. Darks stay dark and lights get covered up with darks or in the case of white show through. A lot of my first painting projects turned into muddy green or brown messes because I didn’t understand how to mix paint on my pallet. I have grown in this area by trial and error. This process does two things. Some mistakes are not meant to be repeated and others are magic moments that you can use down the road. Investing in a couple of books about mixing paint and what colors are your best base colors to mix from has helped me to widen my range of color choices. Changing up your choices makes a difference when you display your art quilts as well. Early in my career as an art quilter I had a booth in Sun Valley, Idaho. I worked very hard to create several different art quilts for the show. Mainly I concentrated on size and shape. When my husband and I hung up my art pieces and stepped back to see how the display looked all you could see was a sea of pink and blue. Like visiting a baby nursery. I remember being very disappointed with the display. It turned out to be a great learning lesson about how diversity in colors keeps your eye moving around to see what is next. 
Using your favorite colors a lot can sometimes keep you from trying something new and for me it is like being stuck in a rut. I know that about myself now and mentally have to shift to other color pallets. 
One of my goals is to do some art quilts painted in black and white with maybe one brilliant color to contrast, just to take a break from my usual color comfort zone. Here are a couple of sketches I did the other day and either one of them would make a great black and white art quilt. Let me know if any of you sometimes get stuck in a rut with your color choices. What do you do to get out of there?….. Karen
