Newsletter of the School of Color June 2012

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1 Color and Technique Newsletter of the School of Color June 2012 Artist s retreat Do you ever feel like getting away for a break where you just concentrated on painting? Well, we might be able to help as the School of Color is based in a lovely location in South West Wales where you will be able to paint undisturbed. Suitable for individuals or parties. If you or your artist friends are planning a break and would like to be by the water s edge, surrounded with silence and outstanding scenery, we have the ideal place for you. If Michael Wilcox is in residence he will be more than happy to give help and advice with your color work. Family breaks Greysilk Farm, the home of the School of Color, is located on the edge of the Pembroke River Estuary and near the historical castle town of Pembroke. The castle is a few minutes away and we are surrounded by some of the finest beaches and coastal scenery in the world plus many other attractions. With the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path running along its boundary, Greysilk Farm provides an ideal location for your family holiday. There are Tamworth rare breed pigs (and sometimes piglets), chickens, ducks and geese as well as family pets. You are also welcome to bring up to two of your own well behaved pets if you wish to. We have two self catering cottages; Ivy and Rose both with views over the estuary, which starts four paces from the door. PS We have a few start of the season vacancies at a discount - why not give us a call to see if any are left - details on the website. Painting holidays We will soon be taking bookings for larger artist groups. The main house is being renovated to offer accommodation of five double bedrooms and two single. For larger groups an additional two double rooms and two single will also be available for those who book early. So if you are an art teacher looking for the ideal location for a teaching or painting holiday, or members of an art group wishing to paint together please contact us. Residential courses In the coming Winter months we will be offering a short series of color workshops. The aim of each workshop will be to impart a full understanding of all aspects of mixing by glazes, color mixing on the palette, the basics of color harmony and contrast and the selection of suitable materials and their use Topics will include: The glazing methods and materials of the Old Masters, the mixing of greens, the colors of shadows, mixing greys, the colors of nature, color mixing by glazing and making full use of the complementaries. The workshops will be intensive and you will leave with a very clear understanding of the topics covered. Your work is guaranteed to improve. Some years ago we gave a series of workshops at our previous centre in Bristol. We were quickly oversubscribed. At the moment we do not have dates or costs to hand but those who express an early interest will be the first to be offered a place. For details please greysilk@schoolofcolour.com

2 Color and Technique Senior teacher/coordinator/advisor Bob Way, a very experienced and highly skilled artist is our senior teacher. He does a superb job of assessing and appointing art teachers who wish to teach with the School of Colour. This is to ensure that wherever a workshop is given in our name the same information will be imparted. His network is now worldwide, with the latest teacher based in Beijing, China. If you are looking for a teacher in your area, or nearby, please go to and click on Find a Teacher. Bob will help and advise any experienced art/craft teacher with a keen interest in color. Please go to and click on Teach with us. Our USA/Canada representative One of our very skilled teachers, Susan Ashbrook, is available to give help and advice relating to our range of products and their place in the artists repertoire. So if you are not quite sure where to start or would like further information on any of our books, courses, paints or palettes please give Susan a call on: Canada or to susan@schoolofcolour.com Glazing book/cd This project is taking longer to bring to fruition than expected as I decided to add several new sections. This has caused the publication date to slip. The book, or it might be a CD, is proving to be rather complex as I will be covering three main areas in depth.: 1. The methods and materials employed by the Old Masters to produce their amazing color effects; the deep, rich glowing hues to be found only in their work. 2. A close examination of the reasons why glazed colors are so different than colors straight from the tube, however skillfully the later are mixed and applied. 3. An outline of the craft involved in producing such work together with a guide to the materials that we have available to us today. Materials which are far superior to those employed in earlier times. So, I need to ask all those who have contacted us to please be patient - it is on its way. Our Newsletter Whereas I would like to be able to publish this on a monthly or bi-monthly basis pressure of other projects has made this timetable difficult to keep. For this reason we publish our earlier newsletters on our website Seminars Later in the year I plan to give a series of one day seminars on color, with the emphasis on glazing. If your art group would like to host or help to organize one of these events please contact: leon@schoolofcolour.com Michael Wilcox On Special A $14.95 Color Mixing Pocket Swatch book will be sent free of charge with all orders over $ Offer ends 30th June 2012.

3 A combination of contrasts - by Michael Wilcox William Turner was one of the first artists to fully realize and exploit the visual interest obtainable from the complementaries. Before he came under the influence of the poet and color theorist Goethe his work was mainly based on browns and greys. Such rather drab work was in vogue at the time. Goethe wrote at length about the involvement of the eye in color perception, after-images, colored shadows and other concerns of the artist. After studying these areas Turner s work changed dramatically to the amazing color arrangements that we have come to expect from him. The Fighting Temeraire, Joseph Mallord William Turner ( ) National Gallery, London, UK/Bridgeman Art Library Could your work benefit from a similar understanding of color? Over previous articles we have examined various contrasts such as the contrast of light and dark, of complementaries and of warm and cool. In general the paintings that were used as examples demonstrated just one of these contrasts. This approach can be very effective as great visual interest can be introduced. Based on color, rather than drawing, perspective or subject matter, these contrasts can be very powerful indeed. Rather than employ and concentrate on just one approach, the use of a particular complementary pair for example, an artist with mastery over color will often combine several arrangements in the one painting. In this famous piece by Turner he combined several contrasts to produce some powerful color combinations. We can of course use a similar approach for any type of work but first we need a full understanding of why such contrasts work. When we have that understanding we can read paintings such as the above and learn from them. The complementaries orange-yellow and violet. Each used to grey the other and further reduced with white. Notice how the blue in the sky is sandwiched between the two areas of orange. Looking elsewhere you will see the complementary pair yellow and violet, at varying strengths. Both blue and orange and yellow and violet are intermingled in the sky, together with their colored greys. The contrast of light and dark is also evident. I have only selected a few of the pairings and contrasts. You will find others such as the contrast of saturation and temperature. Yellow and violet again. This time the violet has been taken slightly towards red in the ship and towards blue in the background. Once again orange-yellow has been used to reduce the intensity of the two violets, and vice versa. The two color-types, with the addition of white have been contrasted one against the other.

4 The complementaries blue and orange. A further contrast comes from the blue and orange, another complementary pair. Notice how the blue is placed between areas of orange. The contrast of light and dark. Another of the contrasts that we have studied is the contrast of light and dark. As with the blue and orange, the areas of light will enhance the darks through after image and vice versa. The detail to the right shows the visual interest that can be added with a tiny touch of light against the dark. Long Grass with Butterflies, 1890, Vincent Van Gogh National Gallery, London During art lessons we are often taught the importance of drawing, of perspective, composition, and subject matter. But seldom the importance of color. Many people stand before this painting for a very long time. Yet it has to be said that there is little evidence of drawing skill, perspective or composition. And the subject matter, I would suggest, is not of particular interest either, a patch of scrubby grass. What holds the viewer before this painting is, I feel, all to do with the very skilful use of color. Which the artists is now associated with. Desaturated (with the complementary, with white or with both) are reds and greens, yellows and violets, blues and oranges and light and dark. All interwoven and playing one against the other. Van Gogh would often try to use as many complementary pairings as possible in the one piece.

5 Bathers at la Grenouillere, 1869, Claude Monet National Gallery, London We referred to this painting in an earlier article when considering the contrast of light and dark. But there is more that we can learn from it. In this work Monet used the complementary pairs blue and orange, red and green and light and dark. The contrasts of temperature and saturation have also been brought into play. Let us consider the thinking that might have gone into this painting. For a start, the boats would almost certainly have looked like most river boats; a rather dull, flat gray with evidence of the local duck population. Whereas many a realist painter might depict the boats in similar dull grays, to Monet they were an ideal opportunity to employ green-blue and orange together; adding life, color and strong visual interest. Notice how the two hues have been used to darken each other. These colored grays, as well as the neutralized oranges and blues are then further reduced with white to produce a balanced, harmonious arrangement. To build on both the harmony and the contrasts obtained by the use of this complementary pair, the two basic hues, at varying degrees of saturation are played one against the other throughout this entire area of the painting. As you work your way visually around the boats you will see what I mean. Artists have always learnt from each other. Turner influenced Constable who in turn influenced certain French painters such as Corot. Other color theorists came onto the scene and further information was added to the pool of knowledge regarding color use and understanding. In time the Impressionists came along. They used the information provided by the color theorists to a great extent as well as learning from previous painters. Artists from Turner to the Post Impressionists did not use color in an advanced way by instinct. Their amazing work was produced with the help of the science of the day, which they studied and made great use of.

6 The very skilful interplay of green-blue and red-orange. The same pairing of blue and orange as used in the boats has been repeated in a separate area. This time the orange is less red A second major complementary pair, red and green, have been introduced, the green almost surrounding the red, which will be enhanced visually. Blue and orange again, with the orange made brighter. This approach is very useful as a means of holding the various areas of a painting together. Color Harmony & Contrast for the Artist Michael Wilcox 424 pages on color harmony and contrast Do you need help with color? From quick and accurate mixing to color harmony and contrast. Why not take a look on our new website? The contrast of temperature within the single hue; green. Yellow-greens and blue-greens, at varying saturations with a touch of the complementary red. Plus the contrast of light and dark. How to mix the color you really want - every time