Happy St. Patrick's Day 2023!
Many artists don't fear Leprechauns as much as they fear green. Why is that? What is your approach to painting the 'mean greens' of Spring and Summer?
Until recently, I spent nearly my entire ‘painting life’ (post college and art school) in the midwest where the mantle of green that begins in Spring and rolls on into late Summer, is only relieved by the warm grays of Fall and the cool grays of Winter. Is that a purposeful gift from Mother Nature to relieve the painter’s eye strain from another day of painting GREEN in the field? Many painters I know might think that is exactly what it is. I’m being somewhat facetious, but the point is that I always knew that at some point during the year I could begin saving money on the cadmium yellows, use the blues for other intended purposes, and calm down the chroma of my palette, and let it rest a bit, like a hibernating bear, until Spring.
That was then. Now I live off the coast of Georgia on Tybee Island, east of Savannah, GA, a coastal environment where we are cloaked in some sort of green year round. That might scare a painter like me, or you, but the fact is that I love it and love to paint it. Seems that when Nature is able to keep her favorite color blanket on all year, she creates amazing variations with it. The live oaks are a different green than the palmettos, than the pines, than the cedars, than the yaupon holly, than the laurel, than the red bay, and so on. The surrounding marshes undergo a ‘fall like’ color change where the spartina and cordgrass, Sea oxeye daisy and other marsh vegetation follow the typical fall color pattern on into winter, before greening up again in March, and really giving a show by mid-April to May. I’m painting with colors now, that just 5 years ago, I wouldn’t have thought about using. On the reverse side of that, many old standards on my palette, those colors that I used to create fall and winter paintings, going back to my early days of learning to paint, are just relics in the back of the paint drawer on my taboret?!
Here are some things that I have learned about painting Green… the hard way. About painting any color, but in particular greens. Speaking strictly representationally here. There are so many ways to paint and express yourself. In those cases, where being honest to natural color isn’t your concern, all this isn’t as important.
PAINT THEM FROM LIFE it’s the only way to fully understand this color…
MIXING FORMULAS will drive you crazy…
ANALYZE the greens for their subtleties, how much yellow, red or blue, how gray?
COMPARE THE OVERALL MASSES because in reality the greens are more similar than the first impression might seem to be.
COMPARE MIXTURES next to mixtures on your palette for accuracy to each other, i.e. their relative relationships. Rather than mix color separated from previous mixtures, which then don’t relate (harmonize) with what is on the painting surface already.
AGAIN… MAYBE MOST IMPORTANT to really pay attention to the amount of the primary color in each color you’re mixing, and how that relates to which yellow, red or blue you decide to use to try to mix the color you’re after. If you’re trying to mix a “reddish” green, using lemon yellow and manganese blue (both tend towards the greenish side of blue and yellow) might not be the best idea. Using a cad yellow medium or deep and an ultramarine blue (both contain more red) would make more sense as a starting point.
Thank you for hanging in here and reading all this. I know just enough to get into trouble, to insist that I learn more. That painting is an on going experiment in how to challenge myself to look deeper, to not accept mediocrity (whatever that is by your own definition), and to allow failure to teach and engage my curiosity in a way that pulls my path forward.
Cheers,
Marc
Plein air paintings from near my home on Tybee Island, GA.
This substack is going to be an interesting ride for me as I rarely if ever paint from life. Reality in the moment overwhelms me— your comment that you should know why you are painting first sounds masterful, (I envy you!) but I rarely know until after the struggle. I like paintings that are excavations of risk and revealed process. That said there is always an unconscious first “glimpse” I’m trying to get back to/uncover.
So glad you are doing this form of blog! And I second Golden. I am crazy for their Open Acrylics. I’m always looking for ways to knock back the sense of a plastic film (ugh, matte medium has never really done much for me) but when I get back to my easel for a new round of work I am thinking of mixing in marble dust. Not sure how that will effect the drying and adhesion of Open Acrylics.
I love In Motion and Sillhouette: Paintness.
I have a new puppy in my life so for awhile I am reading more than painting , so your new forum is perfect timing. Thank you for always helping your students near and far. Although I only experience my greens in the summertime or late spring this is valuable information to me. I see this growing into an intuitive and interesting virtual place of learning for me. Thank you Marc.