Some Thoughts on Color...

Artists attending a major art conference were asked by International Artist magazine about their thoughts on color.  I’ve often heard quiltmakers say how they’re seduced by color, how they design with color and that color is the main driving force in their work, so I was very interested to see how these professional painters responded to questions about developing a strong understanding of how to use color.

One artist noted that what held major historical works of art together was drawing, form, value and temperature rather than color and so her recommendation was that it was important to develop a full understanding of value first,  then temperature and only then should one begin work with hue but even at that point try stick to a fairly limited palette.

This is only one person’s opinion of course, and about painting – a different medium – but could this advice be relevant to quiltmakers?  What d’you think?  There are a few quiltmakers well known for their lavish  and undisciplined use of color  and their work is much loved by many quiltmakers.   Are quilts a medium apart?  Where unrestrained color is perfectly acceptable?  I think few of us would be happy with interior design that used many different fully saturated colors!!  And we wouldn’t wear an outfit consisting ofa lime green skirt and a pink top with orange tights and purple shoes and a red hat…or would we??!!

A second artist also stated that he thought that value was more important than color: “all aspiring artists should develop a great understanding of value”.  He felt that color was more intuitive but also more ephemeral and evanescent.

I usually try to work with value: 

 the photo of the neighbourhood pond..

and below, on the right,  a desaturated photo of the quilt I made about the pond...

                                    

  The great artist John Singer Sargent wrote:

 “Color is an inborn gift, but appreciation of values is merely training of the eye, which everyone ought to be able to acquire”.

 Anyone can learn to see values.  You don’t have to be born with an amazing talent for it, instead experience and analysis, training and devoted exercise will gain you the skill. Furthermore, a full appreciation of color harmony, often crucial to the piece, can and should also be developed.

A third painter had similar views: in order of importance he felt the artist should carefully consider:

1. placement

2. value

3. edge

4. temperature

Placement refers to the importance of positioning the big shapes so that they relate interestingly and harmoniously.

 Value is the lightness or darkness of each shape or area.

 Edge refers to whether or not the edges of the shapes are crisp and clear, or whether they’re “lost” by being surrounded by similar values.  Paula Nadelstern is an absolute master of lost edges with her kaleidoscope quilts; Ellen Oppenheimer has also used lost edges frequently in her optical illusion quilts.
 Temperature refers to whether the mood of the artwork has been carefully set by  a dominantly warm or cool combination of colors.

   Very interestingly, this artist’s opinion was that frequently when people thought they had a problem with choosing the wrong color for a certain area, it was not actually the color that was the problem, but rather one of  these four things.  I’m sure this is true for I’ve seen people try color after color after color for a certain area – “I just can’t find the right fabric!”  Maybe they would have been better off checking placement or value?  Something to think about next time you’re stuck!!  If you can’t identify the right question, you can’t find the right answer.

This painter went on to say that there was usually no one correct answer when it came to color questions.  As long as the four important steps (above) were correct, then probably any color could be chosen.  I’ve tried to put this thought across in workshops and most people are really receptive to green skies or pink grass, but some people continue hold out for the “traditional” (but not necessarily artistically correct!) colors.

The actual color you choose should depend more on the mood and the feeling you’re trying to convey rather than the local color of the item being depicted.

Another important point that was made was to “paint the color that you see, not the color that you know”. I remember taking a photograph of holly leaves – holly leaves are dark green, right?  In my photo they were black and white!  Holly leaves are very shiny so they reflect the sky when they’re horizontal (white) and they reflect nothing at all when they’re vertical (black).

I really liked this comment from artist Paul Newton:

“If the aim of [art] is to create a unified visual statement, where all of the components are there to support that single statement, then the thing to avoid is a situation where various passages of the [artwork] fight with each other and destroy that unity.  It is much easier to avoid this pitfall when one uses a limited palette.”

Value value!!  Even da Vinci in painting the Mona Lisa, began by painting it in grey values; only when the composition was fully developed, did he add color.

Something to think about! 

And if you have been, thanks for reading!   Elizabeth

PS I wrote even more about color in my new book Working in a Series, available from me, or from Amazon (they don’t have my signature in the book though!).