monochromatic
A while back, inspired by the work of Gerhard Richter and Ellsworth Kelly, I bought five blank canvases, already stretched over 2' x 3' frames. I bought a few tubes of oil paint and some squarish bottles of linseed oil. I mixed the colors in aluminum foil pie pans, adjusting them until they made a severely truncated rainbow, a spectrum that went from blue to blue-green to green-blue to green. With a sponge brush, I painted each canvas a single color. When I was done, I hung them in a row on my office wall.
What I learned is this: Painting with oils is hard. If you run out of a color, it's almost impossible to recreate the same shade. It takes time to smooth the brush marks and you'll never erase them completely. And if you add too much linseed oil, the paint goes on more easily, but takes that much longer to dry.
14 comments:
But that's the beauty of oil: you can look at it from a distance and see the grades and intensity of color - the artist's intent; up close you have intimate knowledge of the artist's touch.
That sounds lovely. I love that spectrum. Post a picture!
yep, i thought one would want to see the paint strokes?
kudos to you for having the motivation to try something that hard.
i'd be too lazy.
That sounds like fun. I tried oil painting when I was going through my divorce, but tears mixed with paint wasn't a good combination...
I second Magpie: show us your work! I bet they look really cool. They come from you, which give them intrinsic interest, no matter what!
I would also like to see a picture. . .
I bet they are lovely. I tell my students that beauty lies in the imperfections, and I mean it. In fact, I often prefer oil to acrylic for the very reason that it is difficult to get a solid/flat expanse of color/value. The subtle differences impart a depth that doesn't exist otherwise.
The color scheme you describe is referred to as analogous, rather than monochromatic. Monocohromatic color schemes include only one color (mono = one, chroma = color) and the differences are seen only in value (by adding white or black, which are not considered to be colors).
try some turpentine next time.
Sure does!
:)
Basilbean What I meant was one color per painting. But if I had known that the color scheme was called analogous, I would have worked that into the title instead.
Stillborn: Turpentine? Okay, I'll try it.
It's hard to get a good picture of the paintings (I've tried), because the colors don't look quite right and you can't really see the textures, but if I can get one I'm happy with, I'll put up a link.
i'd like to see them too, if you can get a picture that does them justice.
i like the texture of brushstrokes being visible, especially in nonrepresentational art. to me, that's where the individuality lies.
and i had no idea about the analogous vs. monochromatic thing. all very edumacational. :)
I'm a sculptor, not painter, but I have a painter friend who uses the water based oils and likes them a lot. I do use turpentine sometimes and that thins it pretty well. I think there are faster drying mediums other than linseed oil...but as I said I'm not a painter.
Hope you put them up. I'd like to see them!
I would also like to see a picture. Sounds beautiful.
I would add a few words of wisdom here about the paint if I could, but...well...I'm artistically challenged.
It occurred to me after I commented that you might have been referring to each individual piece, rather than the series as a whole.
I also use the water-basesd oils, since I am so sensitive to chemicals and they do not require painting in a room with ventilation.
me too :)
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