Strained Glass, and Colour Adjustments

With mediocre weather I've spent most of the time indoors working on abstract paintings, partly due to some cold damage I took to my hands over the winter, and a general feeling of wanting to paint spring leaves or something cheery. When I went to the point I found some colourful shipping containers, and other scenes of interest. In this painting I was inspired by a sunset we saw on a walk, and included interesting colour contrasts with green blue and chartreuse. The idea came from some recent thoughts on 'transparent watercolour', which proposed that watercolour paint acts like stained glass by transmitting coloured light, which is not exactly true. The theory itself is strained, and can be easily debunked with facts as seen in Handprint.com (MacEvoy), the counter arguement is presented on the Transparent Watercolour Society of America. As I wrote in an earlier blog, I think the results are the same no matter what people think, watercolours are supposed to be light and bright, not dark and muddy. Unless an artists wants dark muddy, then they have every right to do that!

Since I was taught with this idea, my painting style generally follows the transparent rules, even if the science behind it is false. For example, I never use white paint, rather all the white in my paintings is showing through from the paper. The paper is slightly off white, and it does not transmit though the paint, rather the light from the paper is reflecting in between the particles of pigment which mixes. Thus, the pale blue you see in this painting is a mixture of off-white light from the paper that is adjacent to the blue light from the pigment, and your eye reads it as pale blue. 

Strained Glass 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, April 2021 (No 2603a)

 

With so many earth colours now (I have almost 20) it has been fun to explore their potential strengths and weaknesses. On their own they can be drab and lifeless, but with the right contrasts they are great supporting colours, and can really glow depeneding on context. Here, I juxtaposed pale yellow with dark brown, which accentuates the pale yellow. I also added high chroma (bright) colours in strategic locations to make it pop. As I was painting this, some complex issues related to diversity in my workplace were going through my mind. So their is a subliminal message on diversity and inclusion that  permeates the painting, but not an idea I formed literally. So it's opened to interpretation.

Colour Adjustments 5.5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, April 2021 (No. 2602b)