She's right - black can be a crutch for mixing correct values, and once you start using it habitually to make darks, you've lost your way. But I was using it mostly in my lights to kill the chroma and not so much in the darks.
Or so I thought. Yesterday, Trina made an observation about my Christmas Eve painting: "Where's all that good color you always use?" Well, I liked the painting because I'd successfully held back from my sometimes over-the-top color to something much closer to reality. But like Ann, Trina was right. Color is what I get excited about, and this painting was missing it. Still, there's nothing wrong with this painting - it's just more realistic than I like to paint.
So, I went out this afternoon and did the scene again. I got to the location about an hour earlier, so the shadows were a bit different. (I also made some artistic shape changes in the rocks.) This time, I scraped the black off my palette and worked very hard to keep the color clean and pure, but without being over-the-top. I think it worked, but I'm curious: Which view do you prefer? Here's the latest version, plus the Christmas Eve one.
"Courthouse Butte II" 5x7 oil - SOLD
