INTAGLIO RELIEF ART
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I am writing down some thoughts about life and art 

"Color" for artists

10/1/2020

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Picture
Watercolor, Rock Harbor, Orleans, 2019

I have struggled with the question everyone is asked at some time or another, "What is your favorite color?"  I guess on reflection, mine is the ice blue of a glacier I saw once in Glacier Bay, Alaska.
Its novelty makes it my favorite.  

However, as an artist, I find it best to ditch the word "color". Instead I think about the properties of the colored paints I use.  In this sense, painting becomes like cooking, where the particular ingredients and how they can be used and combined, are important, rather than some abstract concept of taste.

My favorite blues are the pigments ultramarine blue and cobalt teal, which I use in water colors and acrylics. They usually cover the blue spectrum very well for me. I also use thalo blue which has a slight greenish cast and which also comes in green(er) and a red shade, the latter close to ultramarine. Cobalt blue sometimes makes a good upper sky color.

But keep in mind that "color", as we see it, is relative.

Blue is the name we give to things we see that absorb all of the visible spectrum except blue wave lengths. But the blue we see depends on  how we see it. Blue sky at dusk is a dull blue.  But if you are walking outside from an interior lit by artificial light, the sky will appear a bright electric blue, which fades to blue-grey over a few seconds as your visual system readjusts to darker lighting conditions.

A blue crayon placed between two orange ones will give a stronger appearance than one placed between two yellow ones because our visual system is recording the wave length differences. with the orange wave length being farther away from blue than yellow.

  
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    Richard Perry is an artist in Brewster, Massachusetts

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  • HOME
  • NEW
    • 2020 Reliefs
    • Thoughts on life and art
    • Evolution from real to abstract
    • RELIEF DEMONSTRATION
  • RECENT RELIEFS AND GENRES
    • View from Quarantine 4/2020
    • Eastham Library Show
    • Split Personalities
    • 2019 Reliefs
    • STILL LIFE RELIEFS
    • DANCER RELIEFS
    • ABSTRACT/GEOMETRIC RELIEFS
    • LANDSCAPE RELIEFS
    • NUDES
    • PEOPLE/FACES
    • INTERIORS
    • SMALL SUNBATHER RELIEFS
    • BIG ONES
    • QUIRKY RELIEFS
  • UNDERSTANDING RELIEF
    • ORIGINS OF RELIEF >
      • PERCEPTION
      • RELIEF PROCESS
      • RELIEF LIGHTING
      • Windows/Reflections 1973-1995
      • LIGHT AND COLOR IN RELIEF
  • ARTIST INFO
    • BIO
    • ART EXHIBITIONS, ETC. >
      • Cahoon Spring Show
      • Brewster Ladies Library 5/19 show
    • EARLY ART WORK 1967-75
  • OTHER RICHARD PERRY ART
    • CLASSICAL SCULPTURES
    • WIRE SCULPTURES
    • PORTRAIT SKETCHES
    • FIGURE DRAWINGS
    • STILL LIFE DRAWINGS
    • PHOTOGRAPHY