Coloring Winter

I think I should be deemed a colorist, someone who wants to change and increase the colors of reality. That has been my mission during this holiday season--to experiment with color schemes. One interesting color scheme is the tertiary color scheme. The most standard of these is red, blue, yellow.

Let's consider this picture.

Now this one could go a couple of ways. It could be a analogous complimentary color scheme of red/orange/yellow and bluish-green. Or you could make it tertiary of red, yellow, blue with the street being bluish and the green being more bluish.

Winter scenes are common with the other tertiary color scheme: orange, purple, green. That is what I decided to try. I had noticed this triad in this Monet painting in St. Louis.

First, I started with the instructions for a painting from a book, with a similar color scheme.

Then, I chose a photo from my trip to Colorado, similar to this one.

The Aspens were bright yellow. The mountains were brown/gray with snow on top. But to make my color scheme work, the mountains became purple and the Aspens went slightly more orange. Now, yellow and purple could have worked as a color scheme too, but something else would have needed to happen with the green.

Seeing the Museum Differently

I took a week off from my class and my own painting to do some traveling. During my travel, I stopped off at St. Louis's Art Museum. (Best part--It's free!)

The art museum is more haphazardly laid out than any other I remember--although it might just be that I didn't understand the logic of it. In one room is impressionist, the neighboring one might have modern works, and the third will have art pieces of the Native Americans or artifacts of the Inca.

I whizzed by most of the modern art. Sorry! But I like abstract realism- is that the word? Where a real place or object is abstracted in form or color but you can tell what it is meant to be. Large pieces of artwork painting solid black or with lines just don't do it for me. I also flew through a special exhibit on Polynesia. It was pretty good because it had the meanings of the objects explained, but since I have never been and don't plan on going to Polynesia, I breezed by it. I wanted to see paintings!

When I saw this Monet painting, I suddenly understood the triadic color scheme of purple, green, orange. I had trouble understanding how to apply it before. Now, I would love to paint some other bridge with this lovely scheme.

I think the bright colors, especially blues and greens attracted me to this painting, but what made me stop and look at it for a while was the brushwork. I liked to see how all the different brushwork came together, the thing I struggle the most with now.

Take a look at the brushwork up close!
Also, it reminds us how realism and perfection don't always go hand-in-hand with good painting. Sometimes you just have to step away from the painting! (So often I hear us in class telling someone to stop, it looks great when the painter wants to keep going with it.)

This painting caught my eye for nothing technical but for subject. I have seen dark paintings of factories expressing the gloom, the depression. Instead, here the painting is pretty. It looks happy (probably more like an advertisement would want us to believe). Could it really have looked so idyllic? Or does it just show the painter's belief in industrialization?

Back to the Beach

This week, I took a break from painting people and fabrics to go back to my love of landscapes of the water.

I used the technique of blocking in color with lights, mediums, and darks first. The darks (the sky & blue houses) are colored with a wash of crimson, green, and ultramarine blue. The mediums with just crimson and green. The lights are bright orange.

The bright orange is what is responsible for this really lovely sky. My peers came up to me as I was painting and told me to just "Stop". They loved the moody sky.

I also removed the stilts that the houses were sitting on and some people from the background. My teacher and I thought the stilts would complicate the picture and pull emphasis in where we didn't want it.

I also began, at home, a picture I want to put up on my wall. It is based on two pictures I found. One has a bike that looks like one I own, only it had flowers in the basic. Another had a bike that I didn't like but the water was in the background. Both are similar to a pillow I own, so I thought I'd make my own version.

As you can see, I have the darks of the sea and grass laid in. I also have the brights of the basket and tires. My next step will be working on sand and then the grassy-to-be-fenced area.

My husband saw this and didn't understand that this was just the beginning. He said that the bike should be a little brighter. :-)