Tag: Maine

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.

The Beginning

Waiting for the Fog to Lift along the Bay of Fundy, Maine, in August.

As I prepare to publish The Color Investigations of Robert Henri, I am compelled to reflect on the artistic journey I have undertaken to reach this point. I began my blog 17 years ago in the hopes of defining the nature of my work and the language I needed to speak of its images and the passion behind their creation. It is difficult to define what is, by its nature, inherently undefinable. If painting could be described with ease, it might as well be a written expression instead of a painted one.

I am often asked why “Attentive Equations.” The artist must be attentive by nature. Must not allow themselves to be distracted by the periphery of daily living. But must be open to the revelation of every moment. It is in attentiveness- a real paying attention- that we come to know the beauty of the world and our unique place within this cosmos. Images arise from this gaze of attention. They are constantly called forth and miraculously, graciously, reveal themselves. But do we see them?

These images are composed of visual manifestations, but are also supported by other elements. Listening to what that man has spoken of offhandedly; Looking at that child sitting across from you on the subway twiddling their hair, fascinated by the texture; Witnessing the intimate acts of interaction and isolation; Reading Henri’s insights on color’s language or Baudelaire’s journals rife with penetrating awareness; Observing the falling of a leaf as it touches the surface of a pool of water reflecting a blazing orange glow; Hearing the buzzing of the Raven’s wing against the air as it courses in flight over your head; Breathing freely the open space that allows you to be completely alone. All these things, large and small, important as well as unassuming, form a kind of equation that equals an Image. Attentive Equations is my cipher, allowing me to distinguish my path, which unfolds one image at a time, with the hope that an overarching unity may be the end result —a harmony of visual language and a spark of hidden wisdom revealed.

Many glorious moments are crushed by the cell phone, distracting us from our true calling- attentiveness immersed in contemplation- the joy of living with an open eye, in constant expectation of the beautiful in thought and vision, charged with passion. This is the artistic journey- a path that emerges daily, one we are compelled to remain on, that fuels our imaginative instinct. Without it, there can be no artistic consciousness, and no painting of quality can be created devoid of this elixir of vitality.

“Contemplative appreciation of a trace; a picture, hearing music, observing a graceful gesture, may cause the spirit to flame up. We care for and treasure the traces of states of greater living, fuller functioning, because we want to live also, and they inspire to living. That is the value of “a work of art.” The traces are inevitable. The living is the thing.”

Robert Henri, The Art Spirit, p. 160.