When I am starting a painting and the little pencil sketch is done, I begin to picture the scene in color. A French townscape in Spring time is going to have rain clouds looming, but in my world it’s not going to be drab. Did you ever notice how colors seem to be intensified when rain wets the buildings and landscape?
To me, French blue is the blue-ish gray color that acts as the neutral foil to the more pure colors here, as do the other neutrals like the dark brown/black and a warm tan. Voila! c’est une jolie palette français!
What gives a color selection a certain personality is sometimes not what goes into the set of colors, but what one leaves out. There are no primary yellows, barely any red. The brightest and most “pure” colors are the two blue-greens and a medium value of green, followed by an orange and a light purple. All the rest are muted or very toned. White serves as the lively accent.
“My French Townhouse” is painted in thin layers of acrylic and is 24″ x 24″.
This was my beginning sketch!
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Hue Bliss: Color & Art notes by Karen Gillis Taylor 
March 6, 2011 at 8:11 pm |
I LOVE this! I love seeing and hearing about your process!! I feel like I am going through it with you! Beautiful beautiful!
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March 6, 2011 at 8:12 pm |
this could soooo be a children’s book!~
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March 6, 2011 at 8:49 pm |
love your work so much and you clarify where i need to go in terms of more muted tones to offset the bright ones. you can see my work at Powell River Sudio Tour. just type it in google and you will see all the artists and i am one of them. would love to know what yøu think of my work. thanks for the info. glad i signed up.
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March 7, 2011 at 6:11 am |
Hi Caroline,
I looked at your work online, and Peak Godess in acrylic was a real favorite. You have a great design sense and I love that you enjoy the figure in your work. Keep on with it! Substantial work going forward, isn’t it fun?
Well, seems like it to me, hope you enjoy it too.
karen
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March 7, 2011 at 7:09 am |
Thanks Karen. Your use of colour has just been a revelation to me. My colours are too strong most of the time. Your paintings are so refreshing to look at , and although your colour palette has a lot of pastel colours , which could be dreary, the subject is alive with energy and the eye wants to look at everything in the painting. There is much for me to study here. With love and blessings.
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March 16, 2011 at 2:24 am |
Hi Doreen,
Good luck with your color studies, it’s a wonderful life long work, isn’t it? I’ve worked with strong color too and I may be going into a newer, more subtle direction, but time will tell!
Thank you for your nice comments. 🙂
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