The Old Red Chevy

The Old Red Chevy  (1948)

6x8in oil on canvas panel SOLD

Artist Note

The inspiration for this one comes from

the Lets Paint New Mexico group.

February 14th Challenge

see here 

The original photo was of a 

rusty blue truck -

 beautifully rusty - but as the theme 

this month at the Artists Guild 

was on painting

RED 
I thought I would demo

red in the sun and shade.

In my opinion,

Red is one of the hardest 

colors to paint in the light

without going chalky or 
losing its local color and turning
pink
due to adding 
too much white.

 These are the colors I used
for the truck.
Permanent Alizarin
(with a whisper of green
from all the trees around)
to darken into shadow.
Permanent Red and Grumbacher Red
as base colors
then I
added orange with a touch
of Naples Yellow  Light
to make it
even lighter.

The basic principle involved
when painting a dark value like red
is that it cannot possibly go as light
as a middle or light value can. 

The exception being highlights 
or reflective light on shiny surface.

I really admire this painting by Sargent
using all the values of red.
The background is rich, dark red.

Dr. Pozzi At Home
 Hammer Museum, CA
An amazing, life sized portrait.

notice how dark a value

the red in the light is

below

The one below is by Gauguin.

Women of Tahiti, on The Beach
Musee d'Orsay, Paris.

It  is perfect for
showing red in light and shadow 
plus
pink in light and shadow.
Pink can go lighter due to it already
being a lighter
value to start with.

Easy to write about, but not as easy for me to do.

I am always intrigued how the principles
are followed by the masters in every style.

I have certainly picked
the pursuit of lifelong learning.
Does anyone else love the fact
that we  artists can keep
getting better at our craft...forever?

Gauguin Copy

Gauguin Copy

6x6in oil on canvas board  85.

Detail from,  Still Life With Mangos. Paul Gauguin.

I love most of Gauguin's work and I picked this piece because the colors were so vibrant after my previous copy of a painting by Cezanne. Although this was painted some 14 years after the Cezanne piece, I could still pick out some similar, parallel stroke work.  I noticed that Gauguin also used a cross-hatch stroke in flat areas. Both artists really observed each value/color change across the form and both outline the shapes. I did some research on this piece and was amazed at the different colors in each reproduction I looked at, even in the two books I own. I was wondering if the brighter images were after a restoration?