Sep 12 - Moving right along with the Landscape

I've had some interesting responses to the posting from yesterday, and want to address them here, as this painting is special for its misty light. Right now the sky reads as warm, but I need to share with you that the underpainting for this was done with a thin wash of a warm and a cool--to make a neutral. The two colors mixed for the underpainting wash were untramarine blue and australian red gold.

At this point in the painting, there are NO pure warms anywhere. So the neutral sky area reads warm because of the proximity to the cools elsewhere--temperature contrast. It's amazing what colors do in relation to other colors. Ovanes Berberian once said, "A color has no temperature until it is next to another color." At the time, I didn't understand that. In growing into the Color System, I see it more and more, based upon the certainty of the colors I'm using to create cool and/or warm vistas. Again, the source material:

I also need to stress that there is no mixture in the work that isn't less than three hues/colors. This is how one gets those marvelous, harmonious grays. The source material is a lot greener than the painting--if I painted to that (the "match" instead of lighting a fire on my canvas!), I'd be using a lot more duo mixes--ultramarine and yellow ochre or the cool yellow. But each of my mixes is THREE or more colors from the cool box. Try it!

Now you know the "famous sky trio" will do those sky patches, and more details will be added, yet it doesn't look too shabby at this point. Maybe I'll finally do a painting that avoids the "Uglies"!

And I apologize for yesterday's misprint on the link for the Flash Cards. I've fixed it and it is HERE. I've been filling the many orders, and am so happy that I bit the bullet and have enough to fill all of them. Over 50 sets went out in the mail last night!

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