I am pleased to present in this post an article by Varsha Ramani who attended my last workshop in the National Gallery of Art and prepared this beautiful written piece about Andrew Wyeth's "Wind from the Sea". Thank you very much Varsha for sharing this.



Andrew Wyeth (American, 1917-2009), Wind from the Sea, 1947. Tempera on hardboard, 47 x 70 cm (18 1/2 x 27 9/16 in.)

This painting is called ‘Wind from the Sea’ by the American artist, Andrew Wyeth. He was known for painting lonely rural la...
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To analyze the color in the painting you can use some of the following questions, choosing the ones which seem most relevant to you. With this exercise we don't pretend to reach irrefutable conclusions or to classify the pictures in one way or another but to describe what we see. If you are not familiar with some of the concepts exposed here you can read my previous posts where I have a detailed explanation about them.

1. What kind of hues predominate in the painting, ye...

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In this post I will analyze three paintings taking into account the three properties of color.

In the following picture of Paul Klee, red and red-violet are predominantly marking the role of the painting. To a lesser extent we find a red-orange and a neutral green.This is therefore a paiting based on creating a harmony of analogous colors around the red-violet.

Although red is a warm color in this case has a slight tendency to coldness by the abundance of violets that are displayed on a high...
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Friedrich Wilhelm Ostwald was a chemist, university professor and philosopher, Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1909. Ostwald developed a new theory of color, defending the standardization of colors and creating a laboratory in Dresden for its study in 1920. The Ostwald double cone model represents the three properties of color: hue, lightness and saturation. The following image shows that model with one section to observe part of its interior.

In the middle of the cone is the color wheel with sat...
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Saturation is the third property of color. I will begin to explain it from the following examples.


Andre Derain


Claude Monet

Which of the above paintings seem brighter? In my opinion the Derain. Indeed, one definition of bright would be "emitting or reflecting light readily or in large amounts; shining" which in scientific terms would not be very appropriate for my example. Other feelings that I have looking at the picture of Derain is that color is more direct and vibrant. The real difference b...
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In the previous posts we have considered only one of the properties of color, hue. But in the following image I show you how the colors of the color wheel, located in the central part of this graphic, can be mixed with white or black, increasing or decreasing its luminosity. The light tones are called tints and the dark tones are called shades.



Below are three examples of paintings based on different lighting schemes.

In the following painting by Charles Reid virtually all colors are very clea...
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When we look at pairs of colors we can try to classify them as they suggest contrast or harmony. For example, the following image shows 12 combinations made using some of the primary, secondary and tertiary. Which of these combinations will suggest contrast and which harmony? You can find my reply at the end of this post.





Complementary colors

The complementary colors are those combinations of two colors that are in opposite positions on the color wheel; they suggest a sharp contrast of color. T...
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As I introduced in my previous post, certain colors are generally associated with warmth and others with coldness. It is said that reds, oranges and yellows are warm while blue, green and violet are cold; being the greatest degree of warmth in red and of coldness in blue.





In the color wheel all the colors are arranged according to their temperature and there is some uncertainty surrounding areas in the tertiary red violet and yellow green.



Most paintings are based on a system of dominance of co...
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Much has been written about the psychological and symbolic value of colors. It is not my intention here to do a detailed post about it because so much information can be found in books and on the Internet. In the latter respect, I recommend the Wikipedia page "Color symbolism and psychology" and also encourage my readers to contribute with their views and experiences by leaving their comments at the end of this post.

Listening to the people who participate in my classes, I have found that alt...
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1. What is hue?
2. Is hue the same as color?
3. Are there any colors more important than others?
4. Which are the most important colors for color mixing?
5. What colors can we get by mixing primary colors?
6. What colors can we get by mixing primary and secondary colors?
7. The color wheel
8. Exercise: Color wheel using primary colors

1. What is hue?

Hue is the property of colors by which they are seen as ranging from red through orange, yellow, green, blue and violet.

2. Is hue the same as color?

Hue is perhaps the most impor...
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¿What words could you use to describe the colors in this painting?



Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida. Sewing the Sail.

You maybe thought of green, orange, brown, blue, white... You can also see different kinds of green and orange. Some of them are lighter, darker, brighter or faded. When we use these words we are referring to the three properties of color:

Hue: eg. orange, green, blue...
Lightness: eg. dark green, light blue...
Saturation: bright orange, faded red



To better understand this, we are going ...
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This is the first post of a series of introductory classes about color. They are based in the material I use in my art workshops and include exercises. This is meant to be interactive and anyone can participate. If you have any questions or comments, please email me to ruiznavarro@yahoo.es and I will answer you through this blog.



Contents

• Color properties
• Hue: the color wheel
• Psychological and symbolic value of colors
  
• Color temperature
• Complementary and analogous colors
  
• Lightness
• Saturation
• Ostwald do...

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