"On the Marsh"
This image is based on the 'study' (see Study for "On the Marsh") and is a 24" square oil painting done at Butler Studio in Gastonia. We applied the concept of using the late 1980's abstract expressionistic style using the 'spectrum palette' which adds bold, loud colors in the under painting -- high-key paintings that 'glow' with risk-taking expressive marks and dashes of color that produce 'wall power.'
The Spectrum Palette has 3 values in each of the primary colors, (e.g. Cad Yellow Light + Cad Yellow Deep + Ochre; Cad Red+ Alizarin + Burnt Sienna; and Ultramarine Blue + Cobalt + Viridian). Titanium white is placed in the middle of the palette. At the bottom we used
brighter colors like aruelion yellow, orange, scarlet, cobalt teal, cobalt violet, lime green, etc.
For the underpainting 'loud' analagous colors (warm or cool) were used-- keeping in the abstract sense, balancing shapes and colors
(e.g. lavender next to turquoise) letting the colors respond to one another, keeping it unpredictable and intuitive.
The block-in was all about shapes and color first (not a value painting)...e.g. bright emerald green for greenery, oranges, turquoises, magentas. Lots of play and 'surprises' at this point! Darks in the block-in were represented with deeper reds or purple reds.
Local colors were exaaggerated colors like thalo turquoise or manganese blue for the sky, mixed with white.
I switched up colors and tools, scraping, scrafito, etc. and kept rotating the canvas a quarter turn, while glancing at the actual picture for reference. If the image started to look like the photo, it was taken out and kept very abstract. The main point was to allow the image to eventually emerge by balancing colors and shapes....simply process oriented, abstract intuitive, surprising, and so much fun!!
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