For the past year I've been unsatisfied with my color method. My colors have been spotty and lack expression. Some of the colors in my paintings were okay but not jiving with the rest of the picture. I've been making an effort to fix this. In a weekly life painting group that I attend I've been experimenting with staved palettes, more vibrant and more saturated palettes. One of the other participants in this group is Judith Reeve. She draws so beautifully and paints with such rich and harmonious color. I have been in awe for a year now. I finally asked her what her approach was. She replied that she was following an approach to harmonious color mixing espoused by Robert Henri and Joan Sloane. She mentioned Sloan's 'Gist of Art' a compilation of his writings and letters to students. That sparked a memory. I had that book on my shelf. I had been one of Sylvia's uncle Glen's art books. Anyway It contained some info about Henri and Sloan's expansion of the ideas. As it goes Judith has a blog where she elaborates of the theories in depth. I am fascinated. For the past couple of weeks I've been messing about with color the color harmonies present by Sloan through Judith's Blog. This is the fist attempt at using these theories.
These are the rocks just above Skinners Falls on the Delaware River. It's where I go on those hot hot August days to cool off. It's 8 x 6 on canvas paper and took me about 40 minutes. I am very happy with the color direction.
Here is a the link to Judith's blog Attentive Equations