Friday, February 22, 2013

It's not easy painting green by Julie Riker




I teach an oil painting class at the Mechanicsburg Art Center.  The class has sort of evolved into whatever the students feel they need help with.  A few of them mentioned they had trouble seeing and mixing greens, so last night I set up two still lifes....one of cool green objects and one of warm green objects.  The idea was to force students to see subtle color variations within one color family.  They used no premixed green paint but were free to use any other colors they chose.

warm greens
cool greens

 It's Not Easy Painting Green
8x10 oil
My painting which I did along with the class.

This is the second time we have done a color themed class (last week we did all red for Valentine's Day). I was worried that it might result in a boring painting, but instead I like how it harmonizes everything.  There is still a lot of color variation even within one family.


8 comments:

Sue Marrazzo Fine Art said...

Green can be a tough color for some artists.
I Love IT!...Good to see you last night, too!

Julie Riker said...

Thanks Sue! Good to see you as well!

Tatiana said...

Terrific set-up, Julie! looking forward to see Your next one!

Julie Riker said...

Thanks Tatiana! We had fun with it..so much fun that I think we are doing yellow next time - if my painting turns out to be "blog worthy" I will post it. The idea though is to practice and not try to produce a masterpiece.

Pat Koscienski said...

These are things rarely taught in college art courses, Julie. Your students should really appreciate these lessons.

Claire Beadon Carnell said...

Lovely, diverse variety of greens - Kermit would be proud of you :)

Julie Riker said...

Thanks Pat and Claire!

Patricia A. Griffin said...

Well Done!