Colour

Before I make a concerted effort to start talking about my paintings, I went to an art exhibition at the National Gallery in London on Thursday. It should have been right up my street as it was all about COLOUR.

Ah, colour. Colour, colour, colour, definitely more than a few of my favourite things.

'Amorphous' 30" x 24"

The exhibition was interesting enough, it was concerned about the production of colour and the use of colour historically and how it ages. For example, a lot of 14th and 15th century works used to use a shade of green as a face base colour to help produce depth and shade and then paint lighter, more flesh like tones over the top. These flesh tones, weren't particularly colour-fast and have deteriorated over time leaving many older portraits with inhabitants with green tinged faces. I personally prefer the thought that people back then were just more unwell (which is possibly also true). Another painting had a big blue tree in the background. Apparently it was originally green but the yellow colour mixed with the blue had pretty much evaporated into thin air. I found this interesting as I would not have wondered why the tree was blue in the first place. I don't know whether this is because I take things at face value or because the tree still fitted in, being blue, it was still tonally and coherently matched to this rest of the painting. Either way it would have been interesting to see before and after views of the paintings, fresh off the easel and then a few hundred years later. It made me realise how much I take for granted opening up my art catalogue and choosing a few manufactured tubes of acrylic paint. Brightness is guaranteed, fastness marked in stars on the side and there is no oil or egg involved, no grinding up of bugs, powdering of stones, or mixing together the colours I need and wondering how quickly they will deteriorate. I live in an easy age.

I find colour an interesting topic as so many artists seem to struggle with it which I don't understand. When I paint I know what colours I should use, I can feel it. I can step back mid painting, look at the canvas and know I need to put some red in it, or touch up that piece with blue, or highlight that bright patch with black. This may just be because I haven't studied colour theory, I don't look at colour combinations and I don't really care. My painting is about me, what I feel at the time and what I want to show. I think sometimes, you can get bogged down if you think too much.

But anyway, the exhibition - interesting if you want to see the technical side of colour and how it is made - less so if you want the theory behind the colour choice.

This one, is your call...