Orange and Olive Fall Reflections, London, Ontario

This is another fall-colour scene, done in London Ontario. At the top you see the riverbank with the bottom of the trees and the rocks at the edge of the water, and below, the majority of the painting depicts the murky waters reflecting the reds and yellows of the trees. As in the last blog entry, this painting is a good example of juxtaposition of colours to achieve the illusion of brightness. The reds and yellows in the water are actually quite brown, if you saw them on a white background they would be dark and not colourful. However, the surrounding brown-green of the murky river water is darker, and is also a neutralized version of the same red and yellow. As a result, the actual red and yellow are made to look brighter and lighter. This is how to create realistic looking bright colours. 

 Orange and Olive Fall Reflections, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 2004 (No. 0684)