January 19, 2009

Red White and Blue


I am staring at this painting on the bottom and I can’t figure what is bugging me about it for the longest time and then I realize it’s the colors. I hate when a painting starts going red white and blue.

I don’t know what it is about those colors–I even like our flag since we elected Obama….but anyway, I shifted the colors. When your at a very bright color it always amazes me how much you can

grey it down and it still seems so bright. Color is funny that way. The red is SO red in this painting that almost everything has to quiet down or else it’s going to be very tutti fruitti. And then again, now

I see the before and after I am not sure which is better….which would mean that I went possibly backwards all evening. Hmmm.


7 Comments

  1. Tracy on January 19, 2009 at 3:20 pm

    I am with you on the red, white and blue thing. Long ago, I stopped making any of my barns red if they were in a winter scene, the colors: white snow, blue shadows, red barn always screamed patriot to me. Not my thing at all:) I also avoid a pink/blue combo, makes me think of baby colors:)

    Love this piece.



  2. Nicholas Wilton on January 19, 2009 at 9:45 pm

    Thanks Tracy! I totally agree.



  3. Jen Bradford on January 21, 2009 at 12:42 pm

    I like the way the edges bleed out on the bottom version. Your red is going to pop even more if you quiet down the others, though. I like to think of it like an instrument in a band – either find something to compete with whatever is dominating (a saturated yellow?), or maybe use less of it rather than changing the color.

    Do you ever play with color aid, or keep swatches of color around? That helps me a lot, to throw on difference patches of color and back up, just to see what happens. I’m not trying to tell you what to do, just throwing out some ideas that have helped me get unstuck. Happy painting…



  4. Suzanne Lewis on January 23, 2009 at 11:17 am

    hi nick,

    I’m loving your blog and the studio video. Wonderful, wonderful new paintings. I’m hoping to take the Esalen workshop again this May. I was there 2 years ago and it really jump-started my career. Hope to see you and Jennie soon.

    Suzanne Lewis (from Austin)



  5. Nicholas Wilton on January 23, 2009 at 5:15 pm

    Jen- YES! I use black swatches of paper so I can see how far off my darks are–plus just kind of moving it around the painting activates dead areas so you can more easily see part that are not working..



  6. Nicholas Wilton on January 23, 2009 at 5:17 pm

    Suzanne–HI! Nice to hear from you–I hope yo can make it back this year-WE had a big turnout last year and most of those were determined to return so sign up early..We are still in the art Barn and it is limited to about 20.. .Can’t wait to see what yo have been doing…Nick



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