choosing color to convey mood:painting and cooking

10x10 oil on linen (probably unfinished)
How can color be used effectively to convey mood in a painting? Think about the emotions you want to express and then decide which colors do it. (It really is ALL up to you.) This painting was done from a study I made after my visit to the Ding Darling Refuge in Florida. The study was a memory piece done 5 days after I was there. It is vibrant and intense (see below, pastel.) I took that idea and created a one color underpainting, with small changes in composition. I chose to make a quiet, early autumn painting (very different from the saturated intensity of Florida). Aiming for a more Tonalist, restrainted feel, I restricted my palette. I have no photos, it simply comes from my feel of autumn. One of the biggest problem folks have is relying on their photographs. Yes, I know the top small oil is not as effective as the bottom pastel. But for better or worse both came from inside of me. I still feel my biggest struggle is to get the oils to do what I know I want. Again it's like cooking. I am still working on my rosemary walnut biscotti recipe. Each try I get a little closer to the taste I want. Patience is my key word. I know I need to simply keep asking myself...what will happen if I try this...or this and soon I will figure out how to get the effect I desire.... it's a quest. Painting and cooking...both  are quests of a sort. Enjoy the hunt, the struggle and the elusive, fruitful, discovery.

7x9 pastel on paper

Sanibel Mangroves at Dawn

5x7 oil on gesso board
First thank you to everyone for all your encouraging words, it helped to see all of them this morning. I have decided that I am not allowed to whine or complain. It is what it is, a learning curve.
These are the Sanibel Mangroves at dawn. (I love that place) I had painted many layers of glaze on it...mostly dark orangey ochres. Then last night I kept dreaming about the blues that sat up on top of the orange in the dawn's light. I must have had at least 3 dreams about it. I guess that's what happens when you keep painting till you can't keep your eyes open any longer.
This one taught me that it can be similar to pastel if I glaze underneath and use opaque on top, sort of like my skeleton theory.

Mozart Moment/Sanibel

10 x10 pastel on oil underpainting

underpainting
photo reference

A dramatic sunrise can easily cross over to tacky, right? With this in the back of my mind as a "NO, don't do that" I decided try. Still working from my Sanibel experience I began in my version of a tonalist-type method. I underpainted in one color. It seems work as a unifier for me. Next, I pre-selected my palette (and stuck to it!). The palette was similar to yesterday's but I decided to have a nuetral violet be dominant so that the orange would pop. (Sorry the photo is a little washed out)
Now, I need to glaze more of the oil studies, then out to the river for a sunset painting.

Swan Song

10 x10 pastel on oil underpainting, Uart paper .
10 x10 oil underpainting
What better way to learn..... than to transfer my new information to the brain I understand-pastel. So I did a second oil underpainting, but this time it is on Uart paper. Then, I pre-selected my pastels, all the time keeping in mind my color harmony (melon sky with violet/brown.) I tried to paint with my pastels in glazes. Sky first-opaque. Then a succession of glazes- avoiding white. I found out later that I really needed a discord color so I added the yellow/gold green.
At the beginning it was my intention to add the swan, but I wasn't sure I could pull it off. Can you see it? In Sanibel the refuge was filled with pelicans, rose spoonbills and egrets....so I made my own choice and decided I wanted a swan.

Sanibel Underpainting/shale

I read that George Inness first stained his canvas with a light brown tint and when it was dry he took it on location and then drew with charcoal or pencil. Next, with more raw umber he would go over all the outlines. Then he would paint the lights and opaque parts and later, the sky. That would be a days work. The painting would dry and he would go on the transparent shadow the next day.
With that in mind, first did my value sketches. I am still working from my reference material from Sanibel. My photos are great because they are too dark so they really work only as compositional starts. I am able to completely create the color from my color notes or made up. On this one I will use colors I never tend to chose. (neutral browns/violets and a melon colored sky) working in this method takes a great deal of forethought. I realize now that I often would begin with a clear thought in mind..but later meander and become off target. I think for now on I will use a post-it tacked to my easel reminding me.
When time to arrange the underpainting I took a canvas and painted it with my new "shale" from Vasari (a beautiful violet/brown- with both warm and cool tendencies-Deborah's fav color). Now I will let it dry more before going in with a dry brush.

Sanibel Dreams

6.5 x10 pastel and watercolor on Uart paper $100.
Prodded by my work with Deborah, I am trying to stretch the ideas into my pastel. Therefore I approached this one completely differently. Beginning with a Quinacridone magenta underpainting I tried to think of my pastels as glazes. Darks are thinner and more transparent and lights tend towards being opaque.
I began this one yesterday and it wouldn't let me sleep. Finally I got out of bed (Kins the muse cat did too) and surrendered to the painting.

Darling Refuge

6 x10 pastel and watercolor on Uart paper, $100.
6x 10 watercolor underpainting
Artists paint in their heads all the time. It is a way of living...we see through our art. That's another way to explain how particularly freeing it has been to paint through remembered experience, relying little on my gathered reference materials. I feel that my color becomes freed. What do you think?
This is the Ding Darling Refuge on Sanibel, again. Love that place...can't wait to go back!

Tranquility at Sunrise/ Sanibel Island

6 x9 pastel and watercolor on Uart paper $100.
underneath, pencil sketch
Oh! It is so good to be back painting! We returned late last night after a glorious mini vacation in beautiful Sanibel Island. I fell in love with the Ding Darling Refuge: still water, reflections, birds and a feel of tranquility. I did sketches, kept color notes and took photos. It felt so weird not to paint! This is the refuge at early morning, just after sunrise.
My goal- dynamic composition with bold shapes, but within those shapes I wanted to play with the contrast of warm and cool, especially in the dark masses.
Thank you friends for all your comments and notes while I was gone. Thank you also to my new subscribers and followers, I appreciate all your support!