Here are my notes and thoughts from the first chapter of James Gurney’s fantastic book, Color and Light.
Tradition
The old masters didn’t have very many colors to work with, and that affected how they painted.
In the nineteenth century, there was a revolution in the use of light and color in French painting, based on new ideas in chemistry and visual perception.
- Science of Perception: Colors can only be understood in relation to each other–they don’t exist in isolation. Also, we don’t perceive objects directly, so color should be dissociated from surfaces, and the effects of illumination, surrounding color, and atmosphere should be taken into account.
- New Pigments: New pigments were made, and painters wanted to show off their new colors.
- Plein-Air Practice: Artists began painting outside more, which had a strong effect on their use of color.
Later on, Hudson River School painters observed nature closely and they captured light in fantastic ways.
I mean, just look at these awesome images that pop up when you search for the Hudson River School.
Plein-Air painters made beautifully realistic paintings with their knowledge of lighting, while symbolist painters used their colors to evoke feeling rather than to be naturalistic.
Magazine Illustration was a place for artists to play with color and contrast–very interesting in the days before full-color illustration in magazines. Artists had to be resourceful when their illustrations would be reproduced in black and white, perhaps with a color or two added in.
Broken Color: Placement of adjacent strokes of contrasting hues which mix vibrantly in the eye
In summary, colors have been used differently over time, due to what was available (early painters had few pigments to work with, and early magazines couldn’t reproduce all the colors in an image, for example), and what was in style (plein-air style painting with attention to detail and a desire to create realism or surrealism, with a focus on feeling and mood). No matter the style of painting and the supplies available, beautiful effects of light and color are possible. Vermeer could create awesome paintings with color contrast and great lighting with his limited palette of 17 colors, for heaven’s sake!
There’s a great history of artists using color. Study up. 🙂