“Pinks from Paddy’s Garden” – oil on panel, 12 by 9 inches. This painting is up for auction, Click here to bid. In the nine months since we sold our house near London and moved out to the countryside we’ve seen the seasons change from late autumn, through winter, spring and now high summer. Each
Warm, cool and the middle way
When Prince Siddhartha Gautama decided to renounce his privileged position and search for enlightenment, he started by attempting to starve himself to his goal. When that didn’t work out, He changed tack. He tried the middle way, neither self-indulgence nor self-mortification, and achieved nirvana. Personally, I know next to nothing about Buddhism, despite being attracted
The CMYK palette – how and why?
One of the more popular of the “primary” palettes for painting you might have heard of is the CMYK palette. Cyan, magenta, yellow and black. The “primaries” here are cyan, magenta and yellow. The black is added, presumably, to extend the value range. I’ll be honest: Before I started looking seriously at this palette I
How to get better at colour design
Of all the aspects of colour, design is the one that is generally assumed to be something you have, or you don’t. Personally, I’ve never accepted that point of view about anything. Any skill can be learned, can be taught and can be practised. Including Colour design. But how? Perhaps the best known treatise on
Can you really paint with just the primaries plus white? (Part two: Greens)
This post is a follow up from a post a couple of weeks ago where I attempted to paint an orange realistically using a very limited palette – on often referred to as the primary palette: Ultramarine blue Cadmium yellow Quinacridone rose (basically a slightly purple red, any will do) White (because it’s impossible to
The Chroma Curve: How to paint light and shadow
Being able to paint colour that creates a convincing impression of light and shadows is not easy. Especially when you’re starting out. A few years ago, it consumed more of my easel hours than anything else. And I couldn’t understand why it was so hard. I mean, the colours were right there in front of
Why I abandoned this painting! (and what I’m going to do about it)
Here’s a quick video I recorded live on facebook earlier this week. It’s 16 minutes long, and it’s all about why I’ve decided to abandon the painting I’ve been working in this week. I’m sharing this because I think it’s useful to know that this happens to all of us sometimes. Mostly artists just share
Can You Really Paint with Just Primaries Plus White? (Part one: Oranges)
Before we start, I have to tell you that the title of this post makes no sense. Why? Because there is no such thing as a true primary in paint. At least, not in the sense that the word is often used – that you can mix any colour from the three primaries of red,
The Limits of the Primary Palette
“You can mix all the colours you need from just three primary colours, plus white.” You’ve heard this, right? You’ve seen the colour wheel, a thousand times, with the primaries, the secondaries, the tertiaries and whatever-aries. This is the first of two posts I’m doing on this “primary” palette – firstly, seeing what range of
How to See Colour as Value
One of the most difficult things about colour at the beginning is being able to see colour as value. To ignore the hue and how intense the colour is and see it as just value. What value is that apple exactly? Is it light or dark? How much darker is the shadow side that the