Colour Flirt

I was reading a blog by Lorraine Brown about what she had learned on a colour course she has just completed and it got me thinking about my own relationship with colour.

What Lorraine has learned is that there are so many colours we can get from just 6 primaries and she has the proof in a wonderful series of paintings she has produced from that limited palette... so is that the path I should take?  I do already use a limited palette for most of my paintings using a max of 6 and probably more often 3 or 4 but whenever I read anything like this it makes me think am I doing it wrong if I want to use any colour that speaks to me for a particular subject?

I did a workshop yesterday which also prompted this blog and I was trying to explain how I came to use certain colours. The point is I don't have to actually see the colours in an image, I make them up and use whatever I think look good together.

As many of you will know I use my colour planets to work out what colours I might use in any particular painting and I often get a feel for which colours might suit a particular subject. So as you may remember when I did this painting of Holly

I used opera rose, indigo, transparent orange and a touch of burnt sienna. Not colours which may immediately jump out at you for this image but ones which I felt would work and convey something a bit different. I could see a touch of pink and brown in the image, I know I need a dark colour either a deep blue or brown to give me the tones I need and I like to use the orange whenever I can so I tested the colours in a planet and liked them together and that's how this painting came about.

The problem I would have with using a limited number of primaries now is that I could never have got this look without the particular colours I have used.. I could never mix colours which come remotely close to either the opera rose or the translucent orange.. both colours have properties which are unique to them.

I also like bought purples, they give me a far richer colour than I can get with any mix that I have tried so far, one of my other bought "No, No's" is Schmincke May Green, it is an opaque colour but I like the way it mixes with UB to give a rich dark green. I also like Winsor and Newton Green Gold which like Quinacridone gold has properties I couldn't mix using any blue and yellow primary.

I am a complete walkover when someone says "Oooh have you tried this colour or that" and find I use a lot more than 6 primaries a lot of the time (though not in the same painting). I have listed the colours I have in my palette here and when I have a new subject I am always looking for a new, individual and original combination which I maybe haven't tried before and that is actually part of the fun and challenge for me, I don't always take too much notice of what I see I just decide on some possibles, check how they work together then go with them in the painting.

I do have my favourites of course for example, I prefer burnt sienna to light red in most instances (though I like light red for buildings) and though I love Quin gold I often decide I prefer raw sienna when I actually try them out in a planet. I use both perm rose and Aliz crimson and a host of blues though I probably use UB the most.... I have a much bigger selection of the cooler blues and use a variety of them but UB is the main warm blue I use. However I really love using the other colours and am not terribly loyal to any... I use what I think will create something a bit different while still capturing the essence of something. . I then try and  concentrate on painting the right tones using the colours I have chosen and that is what seems to work for me... well some of the time!!



Speaking of tones, I have heard people talk about whether painters are colourists or tonalists and the more I think about it the more I think it is not at all useful to put labels on people......colour is a very important part of my work (it is what most people comment on and seems to be part of my style) and I would feel quite paralysed if I had to rely on just a few colours, but I always choose colours which will give me a good tonal range so that both areas are equally important in my work and am not sure my paintings would work as well if I didn't also have the right tonal values.

As I reflect on the time I have been trying to improve my skills in painting I have spent a lot of time learning about colour. I used to use a more basic palette with the more realistic colours but I also knew that if I wanted to create something a bit more individual I had to choose attractive colour schemes which may or may not represent real life but would create a pleasing piece with colour harmonising around the painting,  I realised that it is form,shape and tone which will describe a subject not it's colour and so colour can be just what I want it to be, does that make me a colour flirt? I think so......and am delighted to be one!!!  To be able to choose whatever colour I like whenever I like is how I like to paint...... I do think you need to have done a bit of the ground work with colour first as Lorraine's tutor was advising and I am quite certain there is such a lot to be learned from doing that so that you have an understanding of what you are looking for......brings me back to my first question as to whether I should actually try doing it, and I think I probably have done it without maybe realising it at the time.... I worked for a long time with my 6 or 8 primaries, maybe because that was all I had but I also knew that it helped to stick to a limited palette for lots of reasons and something I still do now albeit with a much wider range of options.

So how many of you out there are colour flirts and what do you think about using a limited palette? Would be interested to hear your views......