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Color Harmony: Why Hulk Wears Purple Pants

Color Proportion & Intensity Color Worqx When colors are juxtaposed, our eyes perceive a visual mix. This mix will differ depending on the proportions of allocated areas. The color with the largest proportional area is the dominant color (the ground). Smaller areas are subdominant colors. Accent colors are those with a small relative area, but offer a contrast because of a variation in hue, intensity, or saturation (the figure). Examples of Proportion Dominant color Sub-dominant colors Accent Continue tutorial, view: Contrast & Dominance Mark Rothko. No. 16 (Red, Brown, and Black). 1958 In 1943, Mark Rothko, with his friend the Adolph Gottlieb, wrote several philosophical statements that would continue to guide their art for years to come. The two painters wrote, “We favor the simple of the complex thought. We are for the large because it has the impact of the unequivocal. We wish to reassert the . We are for flat because they destroy illusion and reveal truth.” The and surface of this reflect these ideas. James E.B. Mark Rothko in Glenn Phillips and Thomas Crowe, Seeing Rothko (Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2005). The virtual, illusionary plane created by the artist, parallel to the physical surface of a two-dimensional work of art; the physical surface of a two-dimensional work of art, e.g. a painting, drawing, or print. One who applies paint to canvas, wood, paper, or another support to produce a picture. A work of art made from paint applied to canvas, wood, paper, or another support (noun). Cotton or linen woven cloth used as a surface for painting.

Raising the Flag of Modernism: Ben Nicholson’s 1938 | NGV The National Gallery of Victoria has recently added to its collection a painting that encapsulates one of the most complex, dynamic and contested moments in the history of modern British art. Painted by Ben Nicholson, the heroic figure of the abstract movement in England, the composition of 1938 (fig. 1) is disquietingly simple. Geometric zones of unmodulated hues, red and yellow, blacks, white and greys delineated by lightly ruled pencil lock into a perfect, seemingly static, matrix. Two expansive circles to the right relieve the work’s rectangular severity without disrupting it: a floating white disc at the top, anchored by a crimson circle offset below. Despite its ‘landscape’ format, 1938 bears no conceivable relation to natural topography. The making of a renegade In a carefully posed portrait by Paul Laib from c.1933 (fig. 2), Nicholson presents as an unsmiling figure, wearing black with a beret. Clearly, by 1932 Nicholson’s impatient sense of purpose had made itself felt. Mondrian

Color Play Most subconscious opinions about a product are formed within the first 90 seconds of seeing it. What’s more, between 62 and 90 percent of those opinions are based on color alone. Laura Guido-Clark, creative director of Materials for Herman Miller, is particularly fond of this statistic, taken from a study conducted by the Institute of Color Research, because not only does it validate her work at Herman Miller, it also reinforces Herman Miller’s overarching opinion that purposeful designs can facilitate productivity and pleasure. As Guido-Clark sees it, “We need to be leaders with color. Many factors go into determining color in a design and what it should communicate.

Sean Scully: ‘‘My therapist sent me away’ | Art and design With their grids of stripes and squares, the paintings of Sean Scully resemble playing boards for games not yet invented, or the flags of imaginary countries. But, though these abstract compositions are not conventional landscapes, his sense of shape and light is influenced by the three places he knows best: Ireland, his birthplace in 1945 and the homeland of his parents; north London, where he grew up and went to art school; and New York, where today he mainly lives and works, now a US citizen. So which of this trinity of influences figures most in his dreams and ideas? “I’m Irish in the mythic, romantic sense but, in the living sense, I’m a Londoner. My wife [the artist Liliane Tomasko] is Swiss and, at home in America, we like to sing Maybe It’s Because I’m a Londoner and take the piss out of it.” He fantasises about buying the house in Highbury, close to the old Arsenal stadium, where he grew up. So what was it about his parents that brought on this condition? So he hit her?

Sean Scully : Body of Light 59 works found | displaying 1 to 12 Page 1 of 5 | 1 2 3 4 5 There’s a lot of force to these paintings. There’s a lot of physical force to them, a lot of tactile sexual energy, a lot of sensuality. But there’s a lot of uncertainty about what the relationship between the parts actually means and I think that that’s a very important aspect of my work. I mean if I have to choose a course between Puritanism and extreme romanticism, I think it’s clear than I’m going to choose extreme romanticism. Sean Scully, 1994 1 Sean Scully has come into international prominence as one of the most admired painters working in the abstract tradition. It was not always so. In 1981, while still a university student, I first saw Sean Scully’s work in the ten-year survey exhibition which came to Trinity College, Dublin, as part of a tour which had begun at the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham. Brian Kennedy Director National Gallery of Australia

Sean Scully American painter of Irish birth. He moved to England with his family in 1949. Scully studied at Croydon College of Art (1965–7), and then studied and taught at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne (1967–71), and in the USA at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (1972–3). In 1975 he was awarded a Harkness Fellowship and established his studio in New York, where he settled, becoming an American citizen in 1983. BibliographySean Scully, Paintings, 1971–1981 (exh. cat. by J. Painting with an understanding of Colour PT 1 – James Murch See also PT 2, PT3 -Chromatic Greys, PT4- Colour Contrasts, As artists we have all experienced the difficulties that colour can cause. Or to put it bluntly, our lack of understanding in how to properly use colour to achieve the result we want. Even if we are observing nature first hand in all its colourful glory it is not always so easy to represent this in our work. For me, an understanding of how colour works in theory and how this applies in a logical way to putting paint on canvas has liberated me from such vacillating dead ends. I hope with this post to at least guide you in the right direction toward achieving freedom in your approach to using colour. rest assured that your efforts to learn the theory of colour will not shackle you with rules to follow but should instead liberate you from indecision and confusion. As with all art making there comes a time that simply copying what we see is not what creates a standalone work of art. Essentially we are learning what we see. composition

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