Neadeen Masters CDA - Country Carousel Art©

Colours

'See colour' Its everywhere!!

Let Mother Nature guide us as we learn about colour. Seeing colour everywhere and how it is used with all its qualities and properties will surely teach us and inspire us to mimic mother nature's perfect paint brush!

©

As we enter the world of art, we can take time 'to see' what colours are used to paint the world we live in. Here we can see the way the petals of a rose are painted with different values and intensities of one hue - Red Violet. From light to dark they cover the velvety surface of each petal to create contrasting texture and visual interest, not just for the bees but for us to marvel over and enjoy.

©

Again Mother Nature shows us that the coloured markings she uses on the butterfly wings act not just to camouflage the creature but at the same time draw attention to its beauty. As artists we too use colour to create contrast or camouflage depending on the surroundings and the message we need to convey. Is it to camouflage or to show off?

©

We think of water as being crystal clear! However water has the ability to exhibit colour none the less. Here is an example of perfectly clean, clear water from an artesian spring I visited in Central Florida. Water can get its colour from its surroundings or from minerals or solids, like mud floating in the water itself, and also from its absolute depth. Deep water is usually very dark blue, shallow water is usually lighter like on the shores of a Caribbean beach.

 ©

Here we see Mother Nature getting a little help from the gardener (me). These flowering annuals were combined for show and mass impact. By massing colours together they have greater impact than mixing small amounts of several colours in one area. This same concept works to control the viewers eye or to help hold a focal area offering greatest interest to the most controlling and sometimes dominant colour.

©

The subtle combinations of colours as seen in nature will often help us pull together our own colour schemes for paintings that work.  Look at the combinations in this photograph you will see hues that compliment each other. These colours come from opposite sides of the colour wheel. We can always use Mother nature as the guide.

Below we see the shells exhibiting a colour combination or 'scheme' where each coloured shell relates and works because these shells share hues which sit close together on the colour wheel. (yellows, oranges, burnt reds)

©

This is an analogous colour scheme. take a look at the subtle interest and contrasting effect that the one cooler red violet shell injects into the overall scheme. Its all about contrast.

So what does contrast really mean? 'Contrast' according to 'Webster's ' is: juxtaposition of dissimilar elements as color, tone, or emotion in a work of art, degree of difference between the lightest and darkest parts of a picture, the difference or degree of difference between things having similar or comparable natures, comparison of similar objects to set off their dissimilar qualities.

When learning 'to see' colour, we artists can take our queue from objects of nature around us.  Paying close attention to the value, colour saturation or intensity and the hue of what we see will inspire our painting palette.  Hue is the easiest property to discern, we can easily tell one colour hue (red versus green) from another. However, not so easy is to try reading the value (light to dark) and intensity (bright to dull) of the colours around us. Always try to see the relationship between colours and to see if we can figure out the reasons why they work together. Could it be because of a natural harmony (they all share a common thread maybe?), a subtle contrast in temperature or overall hue? Or maybe even just by their position on the colour wheel makes them work in a particular scheme.