Old Warehouse Study

30 cm x 25 cm, Oil, Plein Air

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Comment by Jessica Futerman on April 9, 2015 at 21:13: Thanks Aurelia - I actually have one of these cards but haven't been using it; will have to find it & do some block studies! Thomas, your science background must be helpful in understanding colour theory. And all the work you are doing is certainly paying off, as your use of colour is beautiful!

Comment by Aurelia Sieberhagen on April 9, 2015 at 6:10: I use this card to compare values against each other as well as to see color. The card is 5,5 x 8,5 cm. The size doesn't really matter. For the holes, just push your pencil or a dowel thru or something similar.

Comment by Thomas Ruckstuhl on April 9, 2015 at 5:30: The old warehouse has iniciated an avalanche.... Great, thank you all :-)
I have never tried that credit card trick. I should....
Aurelia, why three holes and what size and distance of the holes?

Jessica, very good questions and i am not sure about my answers...
I often read copy faithfully the colors you see.... Inventing usually goes wrong, pushing saturation can be okay, pushing arbirarily not. I think the longer we paint from life the better we are able to observe colors. This is only true, i guess, if we really observe and not give things the color we think they should have. So it is to better learn to paint the gray stuff we see, i guess, than painting a blue that isn't there. The knowledge about light effects is usefull to know what to look for....
The core shadow of an object is blue if most of the light onto that shadow comes from the blue sky. That is often not the case, because light from other objects or walls that are directly illumated with sunlight bounces around making the shadows warm too. Sometimes the sky isn't really blue although the sun is shining...
To end my guessing, Christine, Peploe and Cadell were fantastic colorists indeed. Thanks for the info and more beautiful stuff to look at!

Comment by Aurelia Sieberhagen on April 9, 2015 at 1:38: I have a credit card size grey (value 5) card with 3 holes in it. To see accurate colours, I peep through the hole. Then all the other colours are blocked out and you can clearly see only the one colour. You will be amazed what colours things actually are. I was painting with Barry once and he was painting a distant mountain in a violet/pink colour. I asked him how he saw that colour, because I squint very hard and still could not see that. He let me look through a similar card and there it was..... Violet/pink. I was stunned! Do that even when paint you block studies. You will see how much you will improve! Then I better start to practice what I preach!!

Comment by Jessica Futerman on April 9, 2015 at 0:21: Love the beautiful colour in this Thomas. Interesting discussion. I also find myself wondering about colour - do we paint what we see or paint what we have learned about the effects of light? If we paint what we see, is it a matter of training our eye to "see" the colour more accurately (& mix it accurately after that)? Because when for example I was looking at the shadows on a white wall cast by a vividly coloured bougainvillea plant in very bright sunshine yesterday, I could not see anything besides a greyish shadow - I really could not see blues or violets or any cast light from the crimson flowers or bright green leaves. Is this because my eye is not trained enough to "see" it? Or do we paint according to a rule (e.g. sunlit objects have cool shadows) because this makes for a more dramatic & interesting painting (which it certainly does)?

Comment by Christine Kirton on April 8, 2015 at 23:12: Thomas perhaps have a look too at the historical Scottish colourists movement; Samuel John Peplow and Francis Cadell for colour inspiration?

Comment by Thomas Ruckstuhl on April 8, 2015 at 21:39: Eric Bowman: triple wow and a halleluja! I didn't know him at all.... Thanks for sharing that link!!!
I also like paintings in sunshine most and agree that design is crucial. Yet the reason to take the effort and paint outdoors is color in the first place i would say.
You mention how to turn form by putting highest saturation at/into the half tone.... that is also what we observe at the object. The question that puzzles me at the moment is which way to go to learn color. Stick to observation or more invent colors towards a desired outcome. Both approaches have their pros and cons. Personally I find them very hard to combine.
Okay i go back to Eric now ;-)

Comment by Aurelia Sieberhagen on April 8, 2015 at 21:21: Also notice the strong notan in his figure/portrait studies. His simplicity in his design work. That all makes a very strong painting in my opinion.