Category: Robert Henri

Maine and the Dominance of Grays

Judith Reeve, Evening Surf, 12 x 16, oil on board.

This past month, I spent a significant amount of time painting in Maine, as far Northeast as I could manage by car. Here, there are few tourists and much quietude. The elemental space of sea and cliffs brings me back to myself. I am consoled by its sheer force and power to evoke metaphysical thoughts, recentering me.

The rock formations in this area are dominated by grays, whereas further South, Acadia is formed by warm-toned rock; Lubec’s rocks are cool and neutral. It has taken me several years to achieve the quality of the coloring of these rock heads stretching out into the Bay of Fundy. I found that the Bi colors and Hues, in several combinations, facilitated the accuracy of what I witnessed.

My landscape palette is the Full Spectrum Palette [see The Color Investigations of Robert Henri, Vol. 1, Chapters 5, 7, and 8], balanced and harmonized by the complete integration of the primaries within the secondary and tertiary mixes [top line of root notes]. This includes the second line of Bi colors and the third line of Hues. When painting en plein air, I do not premix lines 2 and 3, except for the Y Hue [line 3]. The reason for this is: 1) I’m inherently familiar with the Full Spectrum Palette and reflexively can mix the combinations; 2) I like to mix between some of the intervals on the Bi color line to get subtle variety; 3) I also like to not fully mix these colors, but allow the 2 notes that make up the mixture to loosely flow together- sometimes emphasizing one color over another- visually joining within the viewer’s mind. I find this adds a hidden vitality to the painting. All this is possible because the palette is already harmonized before I commence painting.

Attempting to capture the color of the evening light before the rock formation is plunged into shadow.

The rocky heads along the Bay of Fundy are primarily gray with mixes of violet-red or a dull yellow in some places. The difficulty lies in conveying the rock’s warm illumination while retaining its inherent grayness. As the quality of the illumination changes, capturing the gray underlying the dominant color of the light becomes challenging.

Judith Reeve, Morning Reflections, 12 x 16, oil on board.

I found the most effective way to deal with this was to first mix my gray combinations, both warms and cools, then add my dominant light mix in increments to these base grays. [Henri referred to the dominant light as the lightener; see The Color Investigations of Robert Henri, Vol. 1, p.79] The color of the lightener varied with the quality of the day and the time- morning, afternoon, or evening. In the painting Morning Reflections, the rising sun, dominated by RO, was slowly giving way to a GB quality as it rose higher. The image retains the warmth in the sky but accentuates the greener/cooler reflected light in the shadows. In Dispersing Fog, the warmth of the morning sun is held by the fog, giving the scene a pearlescent quality with the cool shadows and gray-violet sea.

Judith Reeve, Dispersing Fog, 12 x 16, oil on board.

Here are some of the semi-neutralized mixtures I found most effective for adding variety to the grays. [see The Color Investigations of Robert Henri, Vol. 1, p. 49]

The cools:

  • G + BV [GBB Bi]
  • G + V [B hue]
  • G + VR [near-complement]
  • GB + BV [B Bi]
  • GB + V [BBV Bi]
  • GB + VR [BVV Bi]
  • OY + BV [Neutral]
  • O + BV [near-complement]

The warms:

  • RO + GB [neutral]
  • RO + G [near- complement]
  • O + G [Y hue]
  • O + V [R hue]

You may say that these combinations are not gray enough! But it is key that the image feels illuminated by the sun, whether it is clear, cloudy, or foggy. Color conveys the sensation of illumination. No color, no quality of light.

Brilliancy is going toward color, not toward white.

Robert Henri, The Art Spirit, p.260

Note the dominance of the secondaries: O, G, V. Also, G, GB, BV, and V were key. Many of the grays were combinations of these 4 notes. Most of these notes were raised in value by white or by the lightener [such as O + VR + white as an example in Dispersing Fog].

Achieving a variety in these grays was challenging and part of the beauty of painting along the Bay of Fundy- dream like and mysterious.

Major and Minor Chords

Over the past several blog posts, I have sought to elaborate on various palettes built from the Full Spectrum Palette. Initially, I delved into creating a Full Spectrum Palette based on 12 intervals corresponding to the light spectrum and the 12 musical notes of a chromatic scale. I then elaborated on the Bi colors derived from these 12 intervals. I then expanded this palette to include the 6 Hues of the most neutral colors. Each of the 3 lines, Full Spectrum of 12 intervals; the 15 Bi colors of semi-neutrals; and the 6 Hues, is fully integrated with one another, therefore producing a harmonious and versatile palette.

This palette is expansive, as it displays all possible tones produced by the 12 intervals from the most intense root notes, descending in intensity to the most neutralized notes. Both H.G. Maratta and Robert Henri sought patterns of color relationships within this extensive palette by relying on the idea of limitation. One possible limitation was based on an arrangement derived from musical chords. The musical intervals that make up a chord are set at intervals 3-4-5 in any sequence. There are 12 major and 12 minor chords. Let’s examine a major and minor chord through the parameters of a triangular palette format.

The triangular palette design can be found in John Sloan’s On Drawing and Painting, p. 120. H.G. Maratta developed this triangular palette design based on models from European colorists, such as Tobias Mayer’s Mixing Triangle. Maratta provided this diagram to artists in pad form [hence, it can be found in the Sloan, Henri, and Bellows archives] so that artists could experiment with various color arrangements for each image, finding the most evocative combinations to elicit the appropriate emotional response.

Below is a major chord R-YG-BP. In the color chart, I have mixed between the root notes to get the RO Bi, GB Bi, and PR color. I have added white below the top line to see the tone quality at a higher value.

Below, I have diagrammed the chord. All the tones within the red triangle are available to use. Note that a large portion of the palette is accessible because it is a major chord. The full scale of R, YG, and BP is available and forms the axes of this palette. The most intense Y and B are cut off. The secondaries O and G now reside in the Bi color zone. But P remains at full intensity. All Hues and the neutral are accessible. The cools of PR, P, and BP dominate. The R and YG are near complements and when mixed, approach the RO Bi, O Bi, and the Y hue. These warm tones support the root note R, adding echoes with the YG. Muted G’s also echo with the R in simultaneous contrast. There is variety and depth to this major chord.

Below is a minor chord RO-YG-P. In the color chart, I have mixed between the root notes to get the OY Bi, G hue, and PRR Bi. I have added white below this top line again to see the tone quality at a higher value.

Below, I have diagrammed the minor chord. One can immediately see that this palette is more focused. Large portions of the palette are cut off. We see the full scale of the root notes RO, YG, and P moving towards the neutral center. We can also observe that YG and P are near complements and, when mixed, produce tones that approach neutrality, and a series of muted G’s, while maintaining YG-ness and P-ness at the extremes. Note that warm tones dominate this palette: R Bi-RO-O Bi-OY Bi-YG. P acts as a counterpoint to this warm feeling in this arrangement.

I chose these 2 chords because they share characteristics, namely the YG. But there is also a small shift between these chords in the R-RO and in the BP-P. You may find that with your image, you are debating which of these chords may enhance your painting. You may find that there is a decidedly warm cast in your image, and may choose the minor chord. Or you may find that you need the major chord to account for the color of your various objects within your painting. Either way, each chord produces its particular color quality and color interaction between the notes that is surprising. In practice, it is important not to over-mix the color notes. The root notes of the chord need to remain firm in the image to create emotive color interaction in the arrangement. As a practical note, I will often create 2 studies in this situation to try out each chord and see the visual effect, then decide which one works for my image.

Experimentation and risk are the raison d’etre of real painting. Don’t be afraid to challenge yourself and step outside your comfort zone. There is a vast well of wisdom gained in the process.

I cover these ideas in Chapters 8 and 16 of my book, The Color Investigations of Robert Henri, Vols. 1 & 2. Check it out.