Fifty Shades of Green
Color Mixing Exercise for Palisade Posh Landscape Palette
Fifty Shades of Green is the title of my new painting series. It has to do with all the spectacular colors of green that I see on our property that change throughout the day. The light in Palisade reminds me of Tuscany especially in the morning as the golden rays of sunrise move across the green of our landscape. As I watch the light change throughout the day and how it impacts the environment in which I live I am also reminded of the Impressionists and their study of light. This is what inspired me to expand my exploration of the Palisade skies to include more landscape.
However, to do this I need to better understand the greens I see. As I often tell my students, “if you can’t see it, you can’t paint or draw it!” Thus starts my study of green and all the various shades of it I see throughout the day. Because I am a visual learner, I begin this journey by mixing paint and experimenting with different color combinations to figure out just how many hues of green I can create, and which colors are what I see when I look out my studio window or walk about our property. These color mixing exercises are helping me develop a palette. I call it the Palisade Posh Palette as it relates specifically to this location. Actually, there are two palettes as one relates specifically to my skyscapes and the other to the land. These palettes are still a work in progress as I want to hone them down. I find that if I have a limited palette, I can more easily harmonize the hues within my paintings. So, as I begin my painting series “Fifty Shades of Green” one of my goals is to identify which colors I can eliminate to tighten up my palette while still creating a wide range of greens. My second goal is to figure out how I can marry the two palettes into one succinct set of colors. I’m not quite there yet, so I will share what I’ve discovered so far:
Color Mixing Exercise for Palisade Skyscape Palette
Palisade Posh Skyscape Palette
· Brilliant Yellow Pale
· Lemon Yellow
· Ultramarine Blue
· Kings Blue
· Cadmium Scarlet
· Montserrat Orange
· Brilliant Rose
· Titanium White
More Color Mixing Exercises for Palisade Posh Landscape Palette
Palisade Posh Landscape Palette
· Brilliant Yellow Pale
· Lemon Yellow
· Cadmium Yellow Medium
· Yellow Ochre
· Ultramarine Blue
· Kings Blue
· Cadmium Green
· Alizarin Crimson
· Titanium White
As you can see there are some cross overs with the yellows and blues but to capture the warm greens present in the morning light I’ve had to expand the yellows and add Cadmium green to the landscape palette and add alizarin crimson as a neutralizer of the greens. Complimentary colors such as red and green, when mixed, can create a huge range of grayed down hues, green being one of them. These shades of green are visible in the midday light when the sun is directly overhead as well as on cloudy days. As we move into the evening light with longer and deeper shadows, blue greens become more dominate in the foliage. This then contrasts with the skyscape colors that radiate off the mesas and create the reddish orange Alpenglow we see at sunset. It’s a spectacular visual phenomenon but proves challenging when trying to create a limited palette to capture both sky and land.
As I’ve never been one to shy away from a challenge, I’m determined to see, understand, and master the color green! The series Fifty Shades of Green will help me do this, after completing 50 paintings, I should have it figured out and have a new body of work at the same time!
Postscript:
Morning light: lemony greens, ochre, muted rusts with shadows of blue green.
Midday light: The yellow green which is cadmium green based changes to neutral greens deeper in tones, this is where the alizarin crimson comes into play. Ultramarine also starts to increase its presence.
Evening Light: More shadows, heavier blue greens.
