I plan to post current paintings on my blog site. I'm not much of a writer but I do love to paint. I do oils and pastels and I teach workshops. I plan to sometimes post demos and talk about how to create a painting as well.
Please check out my website at www.alineordman.com
Thursday, October 4, 2012
One of the last mornings, everyone was a bit tired of seeing so much green. I did this demo looking out toward the gorgeous Provence landscape with the concept that you can use any color as long as the value and intensity work.
Hi Aline! Hey! Where the heck have I been? Why haven't I been writing? What gives?
I'll be frank (you can be earnest!)--I've been seething with envy that I can't go to Provence & paint there & hang out & be cool & wear a beret. I guess I could wear a beret here but it's just not the same...
I'm over my snit now though & happy to see the resulting paintings. They're great! I liked the 'morning still life' featuring bottles of red wine. I can only assume you had a VERY good time at that chateau!
But THIS painting just knocks me out. It is fabulous! It is SO true that if one has the right value & temperature, color is immaterial. Once you grasp this, painting really opens up, doesn't it?
I used to get so hung up on local color & ended up with endless 'Study in Green,#XXXVII.' & stuff like that. Once I realized I wasn't a camera but a painter, I started having fun!
This painting of yours has an especially wonderful sky. It seems 'domelike;'I get a sense of a curved horizon, as though I'm looking that far in the distance, & the sky vaults over all, with turbulent gray & pink/orange clouds.
And while you may have tossed 'local color,' you've still kept wonderful color harmony going: warm reds, yellows & 'Aline corals' in the foreground are restated in the sky,& cooler greens in the background are also reflect in your clouds, too.
Isn't it amazing that if you trust the concept of 'value/temperature' it always works? I mean that even though you have purple trees & coral land masses, EVERYONE still knows this is a landscape. NO one would ever question it.
I am lucky enough to live with a guy who is color blind. He is my MOST valuable critic. All he really sees is value,& these days I seem know, even as I am about to show him a piece,whether my values are off--& sure enough, he calls me on it.
Aline--you write that any color works "as long as the value & intensity work." What do you mean by "Intensity?"
Hi Mary! Always love your posts. Thank you. I was especially happy with this one. By intensity, it is the purity of a color. Out of the tube it is usually at its most intense. If a color is warm, like a red, you can knock it down by adding blue and green...it will neutralize it. But, if it's a warm and you add warm...like a bright red and yellow, it will stay intense. So, in this painting, the lilac and the reds are pretty intense. The sky, more muted so the landscape works in any color.
Oh, OK--I dig. It has been so long since I've mixed oils, I did not think of that. I have to work only in pastel now, given my bum neck & the need to lie back when I paint. I guess I do still 'mix' pastels to some degree with scumbling & such, but I really miss being able to paint with just 8 tubes of paint sometimes. it's like cooking:a dash of this, a bunch of that--bingo! you've got the perfect, unique color.
With pastels, you're forever hunting for that purple you JUST set down a second ago & now it's vanished...
Still, I've never spilled turpentine on my bed & that's a BIG plus.
Hi Aline! Hey! Where the heck have I been? Why haven't I been writing? What gives?
ReplyDeleteI'll be frank (you can be earnest!)--I've been seething with envy that I can't go to Provence & paint there & hang out & be cool & wear a beret. I guess I could wear a beret here but it's just not the same...
I'm over my snit now though & happy to see the resulting paintings. They're great! I liked the 'morning still life' featuring bottles of red wine. I can only assume you had a VERY good time at that chateau!
But THIS painting just knocks me out. It is fabulous! It is SO true that if one has the right value & temperature, color is immaterial. Once you grasp this, painting really opens up, doesn't it?
I used to get so hung up on local color & ended up with endless 'Study in Green,#XXXVII.'
& stuff like that. Once I realized I wasn't a camera but a painter, I started having fun!
This painting of yours has an especially wonderful sky. It seems 'domelike;'I get a sense of a curved horizon, as though I'm looking that far in the distance, & the sky vaults over all, with turbulent gray & pink/orange clouds.
And while you may have tossed 'local color,' you've still kept wonderful color harmony going: warm reds, yellows & 'Aline corals' in the foreground are restated in the sky,& cooler greens in the background are also reflect in your clouds, too.
Isn't it amazing that if you trust the concept of 'value/temperature' it always works? I mean that even though you have purple trees & coral land masses, EVERYONE still knows this is a landscape. NO one would ever question it.
I am lucky enough to live with a guy who is color blind. He is my MOST valuable critic. All he really sees is value,& these days I seem know, even as I am about to show him a piece,whether my values are off--& sure enough, he calls me on it.
Aline--you write that any color works "as long as the value & intensity work." What do you mean by "Intensity?"
I'm VERY glad you're back! L&K--MaryB
Hi Mary! Always love your posts. Thank you. I was especially happy with this one. By intensity, it is the purity of a color. Out of the tube it is usually at its most intense. If a color is warm, like a red, you can knock it down by adding blue and green...it will neutralize it. But, if it's a warm and you add warm...like a bright red and yellow, it will stay intense. So, in this painting, the lilac and the reds are pretty intense. The sky, more muted so the landscape works in any color.
ReplyDeleteOh, OK--I dig. It has been so long since I've mixed oils, I did not think of that. I have to work only in pastel now, given my bum neck & the need to lie back when I paint. I guess I do still 'mix' pastels to some degree with scumbling & such, but I really miss being able to paint with just 8 tubes of paint sometimes. it's like cooking:a dash of this, a bunch of that--bingo! you've got the perfect, unique color.
ReplyDeleteWith pastels, you're forever hunting for that purple you JUST set down a second ago & now it's vanished...
Still, I've never spilled turpentine on my bed & that's a BIG plus.
Love, MaryB