Tip of the Month - October 2001

My Level 1 students often ask me to explain WARM/COOL. What do I mean by this? How can I tell if the painting is 1) warm, 2) cool? Why is this important?

I start by saying that the color wheel that can be seen hanging in the classroom each time we meet, is divided into a warm half (yellows, oranges, reds) and a cool half (greens, blues, violets). Within each of the individual colors, we can further compare to see if the YELLOW is warm or cool, if the BLUE is warm or cool. Comparing 2 or more colors is how we begin to see the temperature differences.

In this small portion of the painting ALL THE FLOWERS... the movement of warm and cool can be seen. There is warm and cool in each of each of the colors. This creates a push and pull movement.

The painting SOUTHERN ROOTS was painted in a dominance of warm colors. The banyan trees that I have seen are cool gray in color. In this painting, I wanted to show warm life and tropical heat.

DAY'S END is a winter scene in Quebec's Laurentian mountains. Whether you have experienced snow or not, it is understood that snow is cold. I like to put warmth in my snow scenes. In this landscape, I put the warmth in the sleeping forest and the sunlight touching the snow.

When paintings are totally warm or totally cool, they are difficult to look at for a period of time.

When paintings are half warm and half cool, they are confusing to look at.

Choose a dominant temperature for each of your paintings and introduce a small amount of the opposite temperature.

Please visit the gallery for larger views of the images above.


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