Yorkshire England - Capturing Colour and Light in the Landscape

My lifelong passion is the study of colour and sharing with others a process to help achieve the illusion of light and vibration in their paintings. There are countless nuances in color that can make it challenging for the painter.  We want to put it ALL in there, but this leaves little room for creating the illusion of light. Through years of teaching and painting, I have found that the eye can continue to develop how we see colour.  It’s this beautiful, never-ending process! The key to creating light is not only learning the properties of colour, but also what needs to be in the painting and more importantly, what doesn’t!  Simplifying, both the shapes and the averages of color are the key to bringing your work to its greatest potential.

 Colour is relative!  No colour stands alone; it appears to look a certain way because of the colour next to it.  This is relativity.  The first step is to see this, the next is to make the color.  By learning and breaking down the properties of color, you will have the tools needed to paint anything you desire with no limits.  The properties of colour are hue, value, temperature and saturation.

In this plein air workshop, the emphasis will be on simplifying shapes and studying the relativity of color to best communicate the beauty of the landscape.  The landscape can be overwhelming.  Simplifying the complexity of the scene will both strengthen the composition in your painting and leave room for color relativity to bring the most vibrancy and light to your work!  We will start by learning to see simplified shapes in the landscape.  Then you will learn to work out your concepts on paper by doing small thumbnail sketches before even hitting the canvas.  Continuing by developing an understanding of the properties of color will help the process of making color much easier and more fun with great success in your painting!

We will be using a limited palette of a warm and cool of each primary, plus white. 

The week will begin with small studies and work up to larger canvases.  Each day will be filled with lots of painting, a lesson and a short demo emphasising the day’s intention.  

In preparation for this class, it is recommended that you read and go through the exercises in Kami’s book, Color Relativity: Creating the Illusion of Light with Paint https://www.colorrelativity.com 

I look forward to helping you achieve your painting dreams and goals during this immersion in painting the landscape of Yorkshire with kindred spirits!