There is Beauty in the Minimal

Study in Blues, 6 x8 “, acrylic, for new teaching course, KGT, 2015

When painters look at paring down their color choices, the first thing that brings success is to take 2 hues that reside next to each other on the pure color wheel and create many tints, tones and shades of only these simple pure hues, from which we can create a nice selection of beautiful colors for making art.

Architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe adopted the motto “Less is more” to describe his artistic view of arranging the necessary components of a building to create a work of extreme simplicity. The “less is more” idea spread. In our painters world of color, we might begin with this idea. Treading softly.

When working on my color course this is one of the very first lessons that we artists can all appreciate and take to heart. We start with pure hues, and then mix tones, that let our eye relax, and see the tones nature gives us in our own world. Nature gives us the best colors, tones and tints. We painters begin to see why this works. These are the best lessons, and we call it harmony.