Highway 762

This is a scene I’ve always enjoyed with these 2 old red barns surrounded by the green fields and hills on the road to Millarville. I started this image as a regular triad with Cad Yellow Light, Thalo Blue and Permanent Green Light but all these colours end up mixing to  green which is a technical challenge to make into a successful painting.  It was also impossible to get a red barn out of this.  Something was needed to break up all this green so I added Cad Red Light as a fourth colour.  That made this a little more of a real world exercise.  My colour hero, Stephen Quiller, mentioned in one of his books that I was reading recently that analagous  colour schemes are beautiful, definitely harmonious but ultimately they are limited.  They are great to learn colour theory but when we master colour we move beyond these narrow restrictions and just paint.

2 thoughts on “Highway 762

  1. shelley

    Here’s a “complimentary” comment: I really really like this painting. I ALWAYS love red against/near green and oranges near blues!! I also like how it works as both a representational piece and an abstract. Really enjoying reading and viewing your colour theory posts, Rex.

    Reply
  2. Rex Beanland Post author

    Love a little humour right from the art. I really appreciate your reference to it being both representational and abstract because that’s exactly where I’m trying to go. I have to fight against always being so representational. I guess it’s baby steps but it’s great to have you notice. This whole colour journey is very exciting at the moment. And . . . how is your art going?

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *