Colour Studies Notes

Colour Studies

  • Agnes Martin, Friendship, 1963: Gold leaf and oil on canvas, dimensions 190.5×190.5190.5 \times 190.5 cm.

Colour Studies: Exercise Overview

  • Definition: A colour study is an exercise for artists to practice mixing and applying colours, regardless of skill level.
  • Goals:
    • Explore unfamiliar colours.
    • Build composition skills.
    • Create colour swatches.
  • Process: Observe a painting by another artist and create an informal, yet accurate, study using paints, ink, pencil, or any coloured medium.
  • Materials: Use materials similar to those in the original artwork.

Colour Study vs. Master Study

  • Colour Study:
    • Quicker and less detailed than a master study.
    • Focuses on understanding colours and composition.
    • Simplifies forms instead of adding intricate details.
  • Master Study:
    • Involves carefully replicating a famous painting, often by an Old Master (e.g., Titian, Rembrandt).
    • Time-consuming and requires precision.

Purpose of Colour Studies

  • Understanding: Helps artists grasp the colours and composition of a painting.
  • Simplification: Simplifies forms to better understand the overall composition.
  • Avoiding Distraction: Focusing on small details can detract from understanding the composition as a whole.

Importance for Beginners

  • Exposure: Crucial to study works of both historic and contemporary masters.
  • Understanding: Helps understand how artists used colour, composition, and overcame challenges.
  • Clarice Beckett, Beaumaris Foreshore, circa 1926: Oil on canvas on paperboard, dimensions 45.5×5145.5 \times 51 cm.

Workshop Focus

  • Objective: Paint four postcard-sized colour studies of paintings by artists who mastered tone and colour.
  • Today’s Focus: Giorgio Morandi and Clarice Beckett, who skillfully used tone to capture light and subject matter.
  • Tomorrow’s Focus: Henri Matisse and Vincent van Gogh, who expertly utilized colour behaviours to harness their compositions.
  • Tone and Colour: Essential in observational painting, but takes time to master.
  • Emphasis: Painting processes are built upon tonal observation and recognizing tone in colours, not just on a black and white scale.

Giorgio Morandi (1890-1964)

  • Nationality: Italian
  • Recognition: Regarded as one of the modern masters of the 20th century.
  • Life: Lived in Bologna, Italy, in a small apartment with his sisters, which also served as his studio.
  • Style:
    • Subdued tonal light.
    • Simplified forms.
    • Radiates friction and distilled movement.
  • Reputation: Renowned as a grand master etcher and draftsman during his lifetime, but now known for his paintings.
  • Composition:
    • Repetition of objects.
    • Objects are huddled close together, forming a single unit.
  • Painting Technique:
    • Painted quickly, without focusing on intricate details, to capture the essence of arrangements and light.
    • Spent considerable time setting up compositions, rearranging objects, and observing before painting.
  • Giorgio Morandi, Natura Morta, 1957: Oil on canvas, dimensions 35.4×40.935.4 \times 40.9cm
  • Giorgio Morandi, Fiori, 1950-51: Oil on canvas, dimensions 28×3528 \times 35cm
  • Giorgio Morandi, Fiori, 1952: Oil on canvas, dimensions 30×2030 \times 20cm

Clarice Beckett (1887-1935)

  • Nationality: Australian (Naarm/Melbourne)
  • Recognition: Received some recognition during her lifetime but was forgotten until the 1970s.
  • Legacy: Regarded as one of Australia’s most significant artists of Modernism.
  • Style: Known for luminous landscape paintings that observe and evoke the light unique to Beaumaris, Melbourne.
  • Education: Studied under tonalist painter Max Meldrum in the 1920s.
  • Technique: Meldrum taught the accurate depiction of tone above all other elements, believing it was key to painting the world as it truly is.
  • Subject Matter: Predominantly painted landscapes en plein air, but also completed portraits and still life.
  • Working Conditions: Favoured working at dawn and dusk to capture soft light and forms bordering on abstraction.
  • Brush Strokes: Fluid and visible, working quickly to capture changing light.
  • Quote: ‘(My aim is) to give a sincere and truthful representation of a portion of the beauty of Nature, and to show the charm of light and shade which I try and set forth in correct tones so as to give nearly as possible an exact illusion of reality.’
  • Clarice Beckett, Not Titled (Sunset), circa 1919-35: Oil on cardboard, dimensions 19.5×23.719.5 \times 23.7cm.
  • Clarice Beckett, Not Titled (Street Scene), circa 1919-35: Oil on cardboard, dimensions 18.4×23.918.4 \times 23.9cm.
  • Clarice Beckett, Not Titled (Seascape), circa 1919-35: Oil on cardboard, dimensions 25.4×18.225.4 \times 18.2cm.
  • Clarice Beckett, Not Titled (Seascape), circa 1919-35: Oil on cardboard, dimensions 18.9×2418.9 \times 24cm.

Henri Matisse (1869-1954)

  • Nationality: French
  • Career: Varied, prolific, and spanned almost seven decades.
  • Recognition: Widely known as one of the major masters of modern painting in the 20th century.
  • Focus: Early Fauvist paintings, completed during the 1900s through to the beginning of World War I.
  • Education: Studied under Gustave Moreau in the 1890s.
  • Exploration: Intended to explore the depth of possibility in colour and its capacity as an evocative compositional tool.
  • Early Techniques: Adopted Neo-Impressionist techniques and Pointillism.
  • Travels: Travelled to the South of France, painting vibrant landscapes en plein air and in the studio.
  • Movement: Understanding of colour's optical possibilities led to the birth of Fauvism, alongside André Derain and Maurice de Vlaminck.
  • Versatility: Worked across painting, printmaking, drawing, collage, and sculpture.
  • Collage: Used coloured paper cut-outs as an immediate way of creating colour compositions for large murals and paintings.
  • Legacy: Collages are among his most iconic works, demonstrating his distinct and masterful knowledge of colour and form.
  • Henri Matisse, Landscape at Collioure, 1905: Oil on canvas, dimensions 38.8×46.638.8 \times 46.6cm.
  • Henri Matisse, Still Life with Aubergines, 1911: Oil on canvas, dimensions 116.2×89.2116.2 \times 89.2cm.
  • Henri Matisse, The Red Studio, 1911: Oil on canvas, dimensions 181×219.1181 \times 219.1cm.
  • Henri Matisse, Interior with a Young Girl (Girl Reading), 1905-06: Oil on canvas, dimensions 72.7×59.772.7 \times 59.7cm.

Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)

  • Nationality: French
  • Recognition: Undoubtedly one of the most famous and important artists of the 19th century; his impact goes beyond painting and the world of art and design.
  • Fame During Lifetime: Did not receive accolades from his broader art circle during his lifetime.
  • Education: Varied art education, studying in the Netherlands at The Hague under Anton Mauve and in Paris at the studio of artist Fernand Cormon.
  • Early Paintings: Utilized a dark, tonal observational manner, reminiscent of Dutch masters such as Rembrandt.
  • Paris Influence: Began painting with the bold, highly contrasting palette he is now famous for.
  • Japanese Prints: Collected Japanese prints and was taken with their simple forms, plains of colour, and outlines.
  • Move to South of France: Completed iconic paintings synonymous with his name.
  • Style Evolution: Japanese prints influenced his stylistic evolution as a painter.
    • Colour is used in vibrant blocks, illuminating his subject matter.
    • Line is used strategically, playing with the perception of object and space.
  • Paul Gauguin, The Painter of Sunflowers: Portrait of Vincent van Gogh, 1888: Oil on canvas, dimensions 73×9173 \times 91cm.
  • Vincent van Gogh, Self-Portrait with Grey Felt Hat, 1887: Oil on cotton, dimensions 44.5×37.244.5 \times 37.2cm.
  • Vincent van Gogh, Sunflowers, 1889: Oil on canvas, dimensions 95×7395 \times 73cm.
  • Vincent van Gogh, Wheatfield with a Reaper, 1889: Oil on canvas, dimensions 73.2×92.773.2 \times 92.7cm.
  • Vincent van Gogh, The Bedroom, 1888: Oil on canvas, dimensions 72.4×91.372.4 \times 91.3cm.

The Grid

  • Definition: A tool used by artists to draw up the composition of their painting from an existing image.
  • Complexity: Grids can be simple or complex, based on the artist’s needs.
  • Purpose: Transfer the composition of reference material onto the support surface.
  • Subject Matter: The Grid itself has been used by many abstract artists as a way of navigating and exploring the pictorial and compositional qualities of working on a two-dimensional plane.
  • Application for Colour Studies: Use a simple grid of four components to guide compositions.
  • Outcome: The painting doesn't need to be perfect or exactly like the original reference material; it's a rough guide to assist with general proportions.
  • Chuck Close, Phil Crosshatch, 2010: Engraving on handmade paper, dimensions 132.1×101.6132.1 \times 101.6cm.