Some Thoughts on Color

February 19, 2019

Sometimes I give free rein to my obsession with color.  Well, truth be told, more often than not, I give free rein to my obsession with color!  I love how certain colors, and certain combinations of colors, make me feel.  It’s really about the feeling. 

Here are a few new thoughts about color relationships in my paintings.  Lately it seems I’ve been looking at my finished work with a new frame of reference.  Let me preface this by saying that even though I strive to paint in a way that gives my intuition full rein and keeps any tendency to over analyze at bay, I like to take time with my finished paintings to see what I can learn.  Often these sessions generate new ideas for paintings.  It may be new subject matter, new compositions, or new color relationships.  If I get a “what if” creative nudge, I’m off to the studio to see what might happen.  I can be something as simple as “what if that were green?”  The question must be answered.

         In looking at my work recently, I found that my color explorations took me to almost every point on the color wheel, with one exception.  I’d never painted a picture in which I limited the colors to only those adjacent to each other, that is to say analogous colors.  For instance a painting in red, red orange, orange, orange yellow, and yellow.  Typically some complementary color would sneak in to my painting to jazz things up.  So here’s the question: “What if I tried this very limited palette?”

I’m off to the studio, check back soon!