Clementine 5" x 7" acrylic on board unframed $99.00 framed $130.00
Color is a primary consideration in painting. I’ve always stressed simultaneous contrast as an important part of what to look for in color. This goes all the way back to the beginning of French Impressionism when the French chemist Michel Eugene Chevreul discovered what he called the “law of simultaneous contrast” published in 1839. The theory says that two complementary colors placed next to each other will intensify or heighten the colors effect on the eye. Learning to use the concept of warm colors advancing and cool colors receding will intensify the space or depth of the color field.
When I taught Chinese students they knew how to do this in their painting by observing it in Western art, but their own traditional Chinese color theory stressed the idea of a limited palette, so they never studied color theory in quite the same way we would in color classes in our art schools here. I found I needed to start my painting classes with a couple of lectures on color theory as used in Western art beginning with the impressionists so they would know where I was coming from. After that, they could choose what they wanted and incorporate it into their own theories without my requiring them to become “Western”. Beginning painters sometimes don’t really use this principle, so the work seems flat or lifeless.
In creating this little study of a clementine, I was reminded of all this as I placed those cool colors in the shadows and warm tones in the highlights. The background is also important because it can enhance the warm/cool relationship of the colors. Notice how just changing the background color changes what you see on the insert.
