free submit 1: Color Field Painting

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Color Field Painting

by Donato

Finger Pointed Solward White on White

Following up on Jespers wonderful post yesterday regarding color, I thought to add more fuel to the color theory fire and share a few color field paintings I have executed over the course of my career.

Just as Jesper methodically plans out his color arrangements, I too made very discrete judgement calls on what colors and approach I would take before entering into the application of paints into these works. Rather than let intuition guide me, I stepped into the left side of the brain and made calculated, scientific choices based upon color wheel balances and intentional limiting conditions. These restrictions ranged from saturation levels of the colors, to value ranges, to the number of colors, to overall complimentary color extremes/minimums.

As I mentioned before in other posts, I love to set these challenges before me - these curveballs - in order to see just how I could pull off a hit with the art as I render the image with these parameters in place.

This post is focused upon works of art created under a generally monochromatic color scheme. Admittedly they are not even close to monochromatic, but what I love about the process is to see how to manipulate my color application so that the paintings appear at first glance as a unified color field painting.

I cannot tell you how much I have learned about color while tackling these images!

It is amazing how little you have to shift your greys to make them appear very cool while imbedded within the context of a largely red/orange painting. Or how grey/brown you can make flesh and have it read as warm while in a very blue/green environment. It is one thing to see it on display here, yet another for you to try it within your own work!

Give it a go and have fun with a few muddycolor curveballs!