All Things Fine Art

For years, I was brain-washed into thinking that black was a no-no on my palette. After all, didn't Monet frown on it? From art school on, I heard everything from..."it is not a color",  "if you use it, it will leave a visual hole in your canvas", "it deadens everything", etc., etc.  Wait a minute! Did I just say that it deadens everything? Hummmmm!

Being a bit of a rogue when it comes to "should nots", several years ago, I decided to experiment with black and see for myself if there was a place for it on my palette. I asked myself, could it be useful? After all, didn't the tonalists use it with good results? And, then what about Anders Zorn? He was known to use it and I certainly love his work. I would love to show one of his paintings here but do not have copyright permission. However, you can find numerous images of his wonderful works on the internet.

One of my works in progress, "Arrangement with Lily", oil on canvas, 18x18".

Palette: Yellow Ochre, Permanent Alizarin Crimson, Chromatic Black and Titanium White.

FINDING THE RIGHT BLACK

To begin, I dug through my taboret and found a nearly unused tube of Ivory Black that was perhaps at least 30 years old. (I wonder what else I'll find lurking there?) I began with the obvious, mixing various yellows with the black and was well satisfied with the resulting olive greens. No surprise there! Among other things,  I tried mixing a touch of it into tube neutrals, into intense brights and even toned a few canvases with it (wiping it off for a gray under tone). I liked the results but felt the color was insistent and I was looking for something with more subtle results,  perhaps a bit of illusion.

To make a long story short, I contacted Robert Gamblin at Gamblin Paint Co. and asked for his recommendations based on my ideas and failed experiments. He suggested using Gamblin's Chromatic Black (CHB) which is a transparent pigment and therefore subtle. For this reason it does not take over color mixtures. Almost immediately, I saw the advantages and fell in love with this color. The article is on the GamblinColors.com website under Tips and Techniques. See the article entitled White, Grays and Black: Possibilities in Color Mixing.(https://www.gamblincolors.com/whites-grays-and-blacks-possibilities-in-color-mixing/)

"Grapefruit Study", 16x12", oil. Collection: Mr. & Mrs. G. Londy

Subject painting included in Gamblin Paint Newsletter.

TONE AND SUBTLE ATMOSPHERIC SHIFTS

Today, Chromatic Black (ChB) has a subordinate but very useful place on my palette. It comes out when I need a dab of it to create a color note for special situations and I still tone my canvases with it occasionally (love this effect). The one area that I find it to be highly useful is in creating atmospheric neutrals for backgrounds in landscapes. I hope my students are getting the idea that I NEVER use black to darken a color. That is a very bad idea but one that inexperienced artists assume is the purpose of black in painting. After all, isn't it the darkest color available to us? 

TONING A CANVAS

Black is my choice when I have a beautiful violet for a background that is too insistent and doesn't recess into the atmosphere. Just a minuscule amount of black added to violet quiets down the color note beautifully. At dusk, I find that a tiny bit of black added into blue for the sky does the same thing. These lovely soft neutralized colors help to pop the more vivid colors in the foreground of the subject where there is less atmosphere.

Private Collection

So, those folks who warned me that black "deadens" everything were correct. However, used judiciously and with intelligence, black can be a beautiful addition to the palette. Since my experimentation with ChB I have found other artists who utilize black in limited but appropriate ways in their works. Gratefully, I can now say that, I am not alone. The conclusion, black most definitely can have a place on the palette of artists today.

Painting the gaudy colors of an Eastern autumn or a colorful sunset poses the same problems. First of all, if you paint full color as you see it, your subject will rarely look believable in a painting. Assuming you want  your subject to be believable and appear natural to the viewer then it is necessary to play down the colors a bit and sort them out for those that are important to the structure and story of the painting vs.  those that can be eliminated as visual overload. 

Simplicity in all things is much preferred in composing a painting as it provides strength to a design and too much of "stuff"  or color weakens it appreciably. This is one of the biggest problems, I see,  in the works of beginning painters, i.e.: the lack of subjective editing. In the examples below, note that there is a clear statement of what my subject is and what it is I'm saying to my audience. All else is subordinate and painted with subdued or neutral color notes. There are plenty of neutral colors in these paintings and only where it is most important is there, so called, full color evidenced.

Study for leaf delicacy and pattern painted October 2016 on an overcast day.

Fall study painted in October, 2016 with some sun shining through thin clouds.

 The Yellow Has It! A autumnal painting in early afternoon sunshine.

Study of river patterns including the reflections and fallen leaves of the overhanging trees.

Notice that in every one of the images above, that they are all painted from life outdoors and that they are small studies. Not paintings. These studies will be the fodder of paintings to come painted in the studio. They provide me with much more information than a photograph. As an example, see the photo  below which is the scene where the first two studies was painted. The photograph is indiscriminate about what is important and what is not...everything is equal. Even if, later in the studio, I were to decide to paint the entire scene as seen in the photograph, I would defer to my studies to decide what is important and what is not. These studies are invaluable to me in composing an effective autumn scene.

Pond, Fitzgerald Park, Grand Ledge, Michigan