Making Color Sing

Recently, I've been reading a book by Jeanne Dobie called “Making Color Sing”. The book has two parts, color and composition, equally important to the success of painting. The first part is the one that fascinates me the most – maybe because many of the recent books I’ve read talk about composition. I confess to liking the way she thinks about color, especially neutrals, and shapes. Who knew that neutrals could be so important and intriguing? I also like the way she links shapes and the way she charges a wash with different colors and not being so literal about the color she sees.

Although I’ve yet to try a single exercise recommended in the book, she has stimulated me to think about colour in new ways. It seems that colour is one of those never-ending mysteries of painting; there is always more to discover.

The book takes you into the elusive thinking processes that can transform an ordinary subject into an extraordinary painting. Jeanne Dobie claims that using the brain more than the brush makes the difference!

I’m also an avid fan of Villager Jim on Facebook. He is a wildlife photographer in the Peak District in England. Jim spends his dawns and dusk's out in the fields around the villages taking wildlife photos and specialiazing in owls. Recently he posted this beautiful photo.

I couldn’t stop thinking about the colours in the foreground of the photo. Being in the midst of reading Jeanne Dobie’s book and exciting about trying something new, I thought I would come up with my own experiment with colours.  The foreground in this painting has an under wash off Aurelian yellow. What do you think? 

Expect to see many other similar paintings in the coming weeks as I explore various options of juxtaposing colours.

Danielle