Horsemen

I am painting "The Horsemen" at home while painting "The Couple" at art class (see my first post). Painting at home is a completely different experience from painting at class. First; at class I am very happy for my art teacher to take over my brush and make any number of corrections to my work. I learn a lot from watching her puzzle over and then solve the problem that I was trying to deal with. I do not have this help at home and must press on even if I am not entirely happy with how I have dealt with the painting session. Second; there are only two hours of class each week, whereas at home I can manage anywhere up to about 4 hours each session if I plan things well.

For this painting I started by accurately drawing the main shapes, using a lined grid to transfer the picture from a photograph onto the canvas. I then tried to visualise the underlying single colour of the main shapes. By this (I think) I mean, browns and greys are made of mixtures of the three primary colours, but which of the primary colours lends most impact to that grey. I painted that visualised colour onto the canvas, with a transparent colour, varying the value by diluting with medium, or by my choice of pigment. So, referring to the second picture, the floor is not bright green, and the horse and the bricks are not yellow.

Two books come to mind as I try to explain what I wish to achieve. The first is "Capturing Radiant Light & Color in Oils and Soft Pastels" by Susan Sarback; and the second is "Making Color Sing" by Jeanne Dobie. I like both of these books very much and if I spent the same amount of time painting as I did reading these books I would quite possibly already have finished this painting. Sarback's book offers an approach to "full color seeing" and teaches artists how to see the colours of what they are painting rather than relying various colour formulas. The colours of her pictures are vibrant, even in stormy weather. I hope that, when finished, people will look at my painting and remark on the vitality of the colours, and yet I hope the colours will seem very realistic and not at odds with everyday perception.

Dobie's book is a watercolor book, and she teaches less how to see colours and more techniques to put down luminous colour. She talks about making colourful grays and I love the way she uses these mousy colours to set off jewels of more pure colours.

I will be experimenting in this painting with laying down transparent washes of oil colour to achieve effects like Dobie describes. Maybe I am biting off more than I can chew, already I am struggling - the dark green floor in picture 3 should have been dark yellow with a cast of green. I have so much to learn.

Have you had any experience with using washes of oils to create vibrant colours? I would love to hear your ideas about how to approach this picture.