Donald Jurney, An Evening in Early Spring, 24x30"
Here's a spring painting that hopes to catch the moment when day surrenders to night. One can hear the peepers as the light fades, and there is a dampness which is redolent of the scents of the emerging season.
Incredible control of colour variations within the shadow area! Can I ask what paint colours you use for those darks?
ReplyDeleteA varying mix of alizarin, ultramarine, viridian, burnt umber, and brownish-madder, all used transparently. Does that help?
DeleteYes it does thanks for sharing.
DeleteI like this very much, especially the limited highlights
ReplyDeleteThanks, Thomas. It's a favorite of mine.
DeleteGreat question regarding the darks...thanks for the answer too. Those darks harmonize so delicately well with the warm orange glow of that fading light. Superb!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the suggestion of brownish-madder and viridian. Those are interesting combinations to use. Do you believe that burnt umber is better than raw umber? I love the darkness of it. I am all about testing out my transparent dark areas in the next few weeks using various lighting affects in my landscapes.
ReplyDeleteRe burnt umber and rawumber: For me, burnt umber is much clearer in tone. Why not take all those colors I mentioned---alizarin, brownish madder, viridian, burnt umber, ultramarine----and brush them out pure, mixed only with some medium, on a white panel or even white, non-absorbent paper. Look at the jewel tones they can make. Of course, as soon as you mix any of them with another, opaque color, you have a very different item on your hands. For me, generally, raw umber is very dead, even when not in a mixture. It's fine for an underpainting,but I use a mixture of burnt umber and ultramarine for that. 'Twill all become clear during the workshop!!
DeleteThanks for that suggestion, I will make a chart of those colors and experiment. I also love to do tinted under paintings using raw siena, burnt siena, ultramarine and alizarin mixed gently in combinations in areas according to my planned color temperature of the painting. I did that in my Fall marsh that I did.This process cuts down on the steps in glazing, and allows me to have some of the under painting show through.
Delete