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.

iridescent paints

When we put our work in the public eye, it provokes comments and questions. Right? Some we welcome and well others, we wonder. Last week when I was at the Chincoteague plein air event, I was asked many questions about my work. The most unusual was, "what kind of iridescent paints are you using?"
When I explained that it was soft pastel, with not iridescent paints, she didn't believe me. That led me down the road of explaining simultaneous contrast and layering.....a favorite topic of mine. I am still not sure if she believed me.
What unusual questions have you heard?

simultaneous contrast- Josef Albers

I found this great vimeo about Josef Alber's work and simultaneous contrast.It starts out a little slow, stick with it because the content is good.

simultaneous contrast and underpainting

 Lately I have been thinking, what do I want from the underpainting? I keep making changes. I have found that when I tone the paper first, with a series of different pastels, I can work off of a rich gray. That gray affects the quality of the color I place on top and I like those colors more. Read simultaneous contrast. hmmmm.

PS Did you know that warm painting make us feel safe and warm?

neutrals and simultaneous contrast

pastel 10x10

If you want to make a high chroma color glow, what do you do? Place it next to a neutralized color, one with low chroma.

This, of course, brings us back to simultaneous contrast.  A color is not defined fully until you place another color next to it. It's all about relationships. For instance, that yellow in the sky didn't vibrate until the grayer/more neutralized violet was placed next to it. If I had place a high chroma rich light violet the relationship would be lost. There would be no yin to face the yang.

A color will appear darker in value on a light ground and lighter on a dark ground, more intense on a more neutral ground and grayer on a very intense ground. Green will look more yellow on a field of blue and more blue on a field of yellow. Size of the color mass also influences the effect of simultaneous contrast. Generally, larger color areas have more influence on smaller color areas.
The gray line going through the two bottom value scales is the same value. Amazing, eh? The lesson for all of us to remember when painting...nothing is in isolation.  Simultaneous contrast is the effect of how color and value are relative.

color and albers

"In order to use color effectively, it is necessary to realize that color deceives continually." Josef Albers.  To me, that's another way of saying- color doesn't define its "colorness" until it is next to something else. A ripe tangerine orange looks stunning next to a darker, grayer blue. The same tangerine sits much more quietly when placed next to a light value of blue. These four paintings are all painted from the exact same place and all use the exact same palette of 6 colors and white.  Each one has a different feeling and vibration.This effect can also be seen in lightly layered paint (or pastel.)

simultaneous contrast, unlocking the key to color

12x24 oil on wood

As I have talked about before, simultaneous contrast is the key. It is the key to unlocking color, its beauty and its relationships.
So as I see it, that to me brings about 2 choices about glow.  In the Tonalist tradition the darks make the lights glow and it works beautifully. Without the darks the lights are dull since they have no contrast.

Now, is there another way?  The use of neutrals also makes colors take on new attributes. In this painting that is my strategy. Will it work? After about a month of layers I am at this point. Still I will increase the "grayness" of the clouds.
Sunsets are very hard to paint...they so easily become hokey, postcard like images. I am hoping to by-pass that.

And now for the studio update recently labeled "project hope"by Mae(my second Mom):
Another contractor will come this evening to talk about possible costs for the building of a new studio.
My Dad has added all kinds of important facts to consider.
Many artist friends continue to email me and comment with suggestions.
I really do appreciate everyone's help.

variations, continued

 5x12

orange variation
I am playing with color trying to create volume and luminosity. No references exist now; I am in no man's land (or make that no woman's land.) Relying only on my color intuition, I place a color down and watch. Change one color and they are all different. That simultaneous contrast is at work again.

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!