September Evening
Season of mists…
‘The under colour seems to have no relationship to the final colours‘ is a comment I’ve had regarding a number of recent paintings. Sure enough, this is something I’ve started to do in the last few months. There are several reasons for this apparent irrational behaviour.
Principaly, I use only 3 colours and I try and get the 3 into every mix to produce a ‘harmony’. Sometimes this means having the inappropriate colour as an under colour (example: red in the blue of the sky) and not completely covering it with the final layer.
This is the effect the Impressionists were trying to achieve, but in a different way. Their way was to have opposite colours adjacent to each other as deliberate brush strokes. This did achieve the effect of ‘shimmering’ natural light but lost out in terms of producing a natural realism.
You can view the above picture in close up, by clicking on the picture. Notice the multitude of colours in the ‘blue’ of the sky. This may not be ‘photographically’ correct but I think it is vibrant and alive.
This painting uses only 3 colours (Indian Yellow, Permanent Rose, Cerulean Blue) plus black and white. There is no medium used, only White Spirits. The painting is 16″ x 12″ and was painted in a single ‘wet on wet’ session of about 90 minutes.
Here’s the video of the painting process.
PictureS 
I really like this one! I wouldn’t change a thing with how you applied the base blocking colors. You even used some of the same colors in the water. Brilliant!
Thank you Robert.
Why do you use your choosen colors as the undercolors? I am just attempting to learn to paint. I draw mostly portraits and haven’ t tried painting nature.
From the 3 primary colours, red, yellow & blue, all colours can be made – in theory. In painting there are no pure colours, only pigments which approximate the colours. As an example, I use Burnt Sienna as a red. By combining different ‘versions’ of the 3 primaries a particular range of harmonious colours are available in the painting. The under colour will be the colour that is not in the final colour mix. Example: sky blue is made from blue and white. The under colour will then be either yellow or red. All this is necessary because of the limited palette.
I enjoyed watching the time-lapse or you September painting.
Thank you.
I totally agree with your way of using color and I like the effects. !
Thank you Claudia.
This is one of your best 🙂 kudos!!!
Sent from my iPhone
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Thank you Amy, I’m delighted you liked 🙂