Greens

Odenwald, Germany, acrylic, 20" x 24"

 
Blog 11

This week, I wanted to give you more information about Pumice Gel, a gel I love because of its texture. However, when I was just about to schedule the blog, I realized that today's blog falls on St. Patrick's Day, a day that just brings to mind a lot of things that are green. While I have never painted or drawn a leprechaun or a shamrock, it made me think right away of my painting “Did you Hear That???”, an acrylic painting of two frogs sitting on lily pads. Even though I created this small painting many years ago, it still makes me smile whenever I see it.

However, I already wrote about this painting two years ago in March. While looking for a different painting to write about, I realized how important the colour green is in my paintings, especially in my landscapes. During the spring, summer and fall there is so much green around us. Something we really yearn for at this time of year when we wish for the arrival of spring but are still getting snow.

Here are just a couple of paintings that are dominated by greens:

Standing Proud, acrylic, 16" x 20"

Beckett's Creek - Fall, acrylic, 14" x 10"

Fall at Beckett's Creek, mixed media, 30" x 40"

Rebecca's Pond, acrylic, 14" x 11"

Green Waters, oil, 12" x 24"

While I love the different shades of green, I have often struggled with the greens in my paintings. It was only after a workshop about Emily Carr that I embraced the colour green. While I usually mix my greens out of the blues and yellows on my palette, I have three tubes of greens that I really love: Golden's Green Gold, a sap green and a turquoise, a colour I use a lot in my Kamouraska paintings.

If you want to get more comfortable with mixing greens, it is a great exercise to create a chart of different colour mixtures. Sometimes, you are surprised by the vibrancy of the mixed colour while other times you find the mixture very dull and subdued. This exercise helps you also to find the right green for the different seasons. Usually, you need a light and bright colour palette for the spring when nature awakens, and a more subdued palette for the fall greens when the reds and yellows are more dominant.

Wishing you a Happy St. Patrick's Day! I hope you will return for next week's blog about Pumice Gel.