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Saturday, December 26, 2009

The Dark Side: Tonalism v. Colorism

On our way west this month, we stopped at my mentor Ann Templeton's house near Austin for a couple of nights. It's always a pleasure to visit with her, and this time, we got to see the great new studio she built. While we were there, I happened to mention that I've started using Gamblin's Chromatic Black. Ann, famous for her colorist approach to painting, warned me that the use of black might cause me to slip into tonalism. ("Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny," said Yoda to young Luke Skywalker.)

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

"Courthouse Butte, Christmas Eve" 5x7 oil
Available from Windrush Gallery