Sunday, December 28, 2008

If You're in the Mood to Visit

Here are some artists who are doing some exciting, beautiful, color-licious art that I found from perusing my Watercolor Artist magazine again. Visit their sites and see some good stuff.

Go to http://www.harrisongalleries.com and check out Kiff Holland's light-filled paintings.

Go to http://www.bobrudd.com/default.asp and enjoy Bob Rudd's colors which are luscious, and unusual and, well, just purely delightful to see his paintings.

Do you know the difference between Visual Complements and Mixing Complements? Mixing Complements are those complements we all learn to mix to get a good grey or black:
red + green
yellow + violet
blue + orange.
But to work with Visual Complements, you create side-by-side pure colors that zing off the page (Carol Carter uses visual complements in her palette and so does Bob Rudd). Those colors are:
red + turquoise
blue + yellow
cyan + orange.
Now don't ask me exactly what color cyan is - I know my printer ink has one called cyan and it's a blue but maybe a bit on the green side??
Perhaps Bruce McEvoy's internet link, handprint.com has the answer? Or Hilary Page's book, Guide to Watercolor Paints? Or Nita Leland's newest book, Confident Color?

For a downloadable pdf about painting with pure colors, go to
http://www.artistsnetwork.com/article/wc-pure-colors and see what David Daniels does using a pure color palette.

Okay, now I either need to get some exercise or paint...

Enjoy!

3 comments:

Deb Léger said...

HI Rhonda,
I downloaded the David Daniels pdf - thanks for the link! I love his use of colour in that goldfish painting!

Joan Sandford-Cook said...

Thanks for the colour theory post - most helpful. Strangely without knowing why I often paint with reds and aquas (torquoise) when Im creating a contemporary textured floral piece. Must take note of the other combinations you list. Enjoying the development of your Trickel Down painting. All the best for the New Year.

RH Carpenter said...

Hey, Deb, glad you liked the pdf. Check out Bob Rudd's colors - just wonderful stuff.
Joan, I think some artists just have that natural inclination to paint in the "correct" colors. I think I will post this on my bulletin board to remind myself to try out some combos for visual complements more often.
Alas, Trickle Down has turned on me - not sure if I should try to save the little doggie or just start anew.