Hans Hoffman, Color and the field

10x11 pastel

When you read about Hans Hoffman's teaching, color was not used to copy nature literally, but to make relationships, mass and luminosity.   Nature inspires but does not control. We, instead are in charge. Our choice of color is intuitive and expresses feeling.
You must consider that colors have look different depending on whether their edges are hard or soft. Whether the change in value at these edges is smooth or abrupt (as I experimented with above). The appearance of color is affected by the color adjacent.  Simultaneous contrast is really what the relationships are all about.
Since I have returned home I am haunting my fields. As a compositional challenge I also purposely put that tree right in the middle. Heh.

Wolf Kahn on Hans Hoffman

oil painting, Hans Hoffman

Long ago, when I was in Art School I would set up a still life of scattered laundry using Hans Hoffman paintings as my inspiration. Hoffman's paintings were a guide to tell me where to place the colors of my scattered laundry pieces.
Hoffman was the teacher of many painters we know and love. Wolf Kahn was one of his students. Wolf Kahn use of color and love of the landscape amazed me. Today when I was browsing the internet I found this interesting interview. Here is a link to the PBS interview of WK in which  he speaks about his time as a student of Hans Hoffman.

Quote of the day-Hans Hoffman
"My aim in painting is to create pulsating, luminous and open surfaces that emanate a mystic light, in accordance with deepest insight into the experience of life and nature."

spring equals yummy neutrals

10x14 pastel on watercolor

The use of compliments is an important tool for making delicious neutrals.  For pastels that means graying down a color in thin layers. I like to use the watercolor underpainting the make it happen quickly on the spot. In the studio I find that glazing in oil can be very similar.

Springtime is full of these beautiful colors. Enjoy the bounty!

In the meantime, a quote from Hans Hofmann,
In nature, light creates the color. In the picture, color creates the light.

influences and a piece of advice

5x12 pastel on BFK  and its grisaille

Hans Hoffman was one of Wolf Kahn's teachers. The exploration of color was the main focus of their work(from my understanding.) It is mine as well. For me it's about simultaneous contrast, how relationships of colors next to each other effect the two colors and the whole. Hoffman talked about using color, not to copy nature, but to construct a relationship; in effect creating luminousity. Rothko did it magnificently. So did Kahn. Richard McKinley, master of simultaneous contrast, preaches it and I listen. I think that it's sinking in....finally! My advice for the new year (rather than resolutions) is for me and anyone that wants to listen. If the painting isn't working look around, it's probably not the part you are looking at.  What's next to it?

Have a wonderful, fruitful, healthy new year!
Hugs, Loriann

P.S. THANK you Richard!

push and pull

Push and pull with color.  Long ago I studied the work and writings of Hans Hoffman's work.  He influenced many artists of his time including Wolf Kahn. Hans Hoffman was not only a great artist but a tireless, much loved teacher.  He had a theory about the tension between space, form and color that he called the push/ pull theory. The basic premise is that warm and cool colors work to create a push pull which creates depth, space and above all feeling. I was thinking about Hans Hoffman when I looked at this piece in the mirror.
Long ago, in order to learn from him, I created still lives based on his abstract paintings.
For a little fun check out PBS site for the push pull painting activity. Sam, this is for you, I think it may help your recovery form your broken arm and lonely unisons.  Check out Sam's blog for the story about the break.

I wrote this post as a draft before I left home and I am posting it from sunny California! All I can say is wow am I lucky!  It was a surreal drive to BWI airport with no real plowed interstate, trucks jackknifed on the side, cars strewn here and there and abandoned.  My little Honda FIT slowly inched to the airport.  Yay!  Only 12 flights made it out of BWI and mine was one. They had delayed it first, then announced "hurry , the window for leaving is now...or never." The airplane was de-iced and then up we went to the sunshine above the clouds! We didn't even miss our connecting flight. It was a long very hairy travel day that finally ended happily about 24 hours later. Yay!!!!!

PS More more on the field will continue upon my return. I still haven't figured it out.