I’ve started my new paintings and I’m really loving them so far. This time I’ve decided I want to zone in on the colour. Previously in the early stages of my paintings I haven’t worried so much about mixing EXACTLY the right colours from the start. After all, most of the early stages are painted over and as the layers build and I decide on my colour palette I like to have wee pops of clashing or unexpected colour peeping through.

But with these paintings, I’m taking more time to mix colours that are ‘right’.  Suddenly I hear a chorus of “What exactly is a ‘right’ colour?”  Of course, there is no such one colour.  A ‘right’ colour is one that looks absolutely gorgeous next to the colour around it.  

It might look gorgeous as a contrasting colour, or it might look gorgeous as an analogous colour – depending on what you’re after.  But the key here is that it looks gorgeous and another key (we all have more than one key – right?) is that I mix the colours with intention.  I’m not being haphazard and just seeing what appears – I’m thinking, what exactly do I want?

The result is that the paintings are exciting (colourwise) already and we’re only a few layers in.  I haven’t decided what direction I’m taking with any of them yet, but the colours are juicy and certainly motivating me to get back and move them along.

Over the last few days I’ve held my monthly Q&A calls for my stARTs program and the question of colour has come up.  It’s problematic until you understand how colour works.  I didn’t really get a handle on it until a few years ago.  I always knew the colours I liked and knew what colours I liked to put together so I would paint within those parameters.  Rarely veering off my well-trodden colour pathway.

Now I understand, and it’s really quite simple.  There’s warm and cool, there’s light and dark, and there’s saturated (bright, hard) and unsaturated (muted, mixed with little bits of lots of colours).  And then there’s grey.  You can mix grey with black and white OR YOU CAN MAKE GORGEOUS GREY.  Gorgeous Grey is made from mixing warm and cool colours together, adding a little white, sometimes a little black, but mostly Gorgeous Grey is a melting pot of C O L O U R.

Just like everything else in Art and Life – opposites attract. So Gorgeous Grey will look sublime with a saturated colour. But GG also looks beautiful – almost lickable with muted colours as well. Because GG has all the colours in it, it harmonizes with everything. GG is everybody’s friend.

What I see in a lot of my students’ work is that they don’t decide on a hero. They’ve made a range of beautiful colours that look great together, but they haven’t taken the next step to decide on one (maybe two) to shout about. So as the viewer, I look at the painting and my response is “nice colours”. Now when you have a hero (or two), you as the artist have made a decision for the viewer – you’re saying “Stop right there and LOOK AT THIS COLOUR” to which the viewer’s response is “Wow, I love THAT colour”.

They love THAT colour because you’ve put it with the other colours that make it look fabulous. You’re not offering the viewer an option – which of all these colours do you love? You’ve decided for them, there’s clarity and strength in your decision and as a result, the response is usually stronger.

So how do you make a colour a hero? Of course, there’s never going to be one answer to that question. But…. you can use a lot more of it than the other colours. Or you can ONLY use that colour against neutrals or Gorgeous Grey, OR you can ONLY use that colour and variations of. Or you can use a tiny bit of that colour as a focal point in the painting… As long as that colour isn’t competing with other colours and it’s quite clear that it’s the colour carrying the most weight in the painting, it’s the most noticeable - then it’s the hero.

Have a look at your work and ask yourself – is it clear which is my colour hero?  Or, (and this could be dangerous… refer to previous blog post “Other People’s Opinions”) you could ask someone else.  If it’s not obvious to the layman you might need a bigger cloak and bandanna for your hero.

If you want to see some true hero’s make sure you are members of The Upbeat Artists Group.  It’s a wonderful, inspirational, and supportive community of artists in all stages of the creative journey.  You are invited to join.

Next month I’ll be running a FREE WORKSHOP in there, so make sure you’re in the group or come and follow me on Instagram where you can see the progression of the work I’ve referred to in this post.