Wolf Kahn, grays / bright colors and field, early morning

10x11 pastel

This week I was asked why do I put so many bright colors in my paintings? You don't really see those do you? My only answer was that "my painting was a response to the scene rather than a depiction." I hear in my head, "Loriann you need to balance all that bright color with grays." That's what we have been taught, right?  I think balance is true, but does it have to be just neutrals? Can't the weight of volume and density of color answer the call as well?
So I turned to reading about Wolf Kahn, a master of color and balance. He too was asked how does he make all these brilliant colors work in a painting. (great company to have) WK answered, “The only time I feel comfortable is when I don’t know why the colors work,” he says. For him the act of painting is a conversation. You don’t control it; you respond to it. “It’s useful to think of a painting as a pet. If you have a pet, you give it food and it doesn’t overeat. Yet somehow if you haven’t given it enough, the pet will let you know it and you give it more so the pet is satisfied,” he says. “Painting isn’t really all that mysterious. You just give it enough till it’s satisfied.” Sounds easy, eh?
Letting go of control seems to be the answer of the month.