The Painting of "Red Rocks 4"

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The Painting of "Red Rocks 4"

I, like so many other artists I know, am fascinated by, and in love with the desert southwest. I have painted many abstract landscapes of the area, but until now I have never used local color. Local color meaning the actual color of the scene. This painting is a certain view in Sedona, Arizona, but is not done to mimic, or really even resemble what is there, but rather to provide the “feeling” of what is there. The reddish- orangyness (I think that’s a technical term) of the soil and the cobalt blue sky on a clear day.

I believe that is the color combo most of us artists think about when dreaming of that area of the US. I thought I would experiment with it to see what happened, and I have at least one other idea using these colors for an abstract desert landscape.

This painting is painted on a half sheet (11x30) of Fabriano Artistico 300lb Watercolor Paper covered with gesso.

Just a note about the colors. I used, as you can see from my list, lots of colors. The goal was to have an orange and blue complementary color combination. Every color doesn’t have to be blue or orange, but when the painting is complete, it has to LOOK and FEEL like a blue and orange painting.

Here are the colors I used - all are GOLDEN Heavy Body Acrylic Paints:

  • Benzimidazolone Yellow Light

  • Diarylide Yellow

  • Naples Yellow Hue

  • Yellow Ochre

  • Pyrrole Orange

  • Burnt Sienna

  • Cadmium Red Medium Hue

  • Quinacridone Magenta

  • Medium Magenta

  • Dioxazine Purple

  • Cerulean Blue Deep

  • Cobalt Blue Hue

  • Titanium White

The first thing I have to do when I begin any abstract landscape painting is draw in a horizon line. If I don’t draw it in first, the horizon always seems to be tilted. On the palette I mix all kinds of oranges and muted oranges and dark oranges. I also have reds, dark reds, and yellow-oranges to work with.

I then start putting in shapes. This painting is mainly about making and building shapes. Shapes of the land forms and shapes of the sky. I begin my shape making with the land forms, pulling randomly from the palette using my mixes of oranges and reds.

I continue by placing some light value areas that will become part of my centers of interest. The light values are placed on the horizon line. I then put some color on the ground plane, followed by a little Cerulean Blue deep mixed with white for the sky. Initially I work exclusively on the right side of the piece, where most of the action will happen in the painting.

I begin to move left laying in a bit of blue sky and then turn my attention to the land shapes on the left, gradually adding some small shapes and a mix of orange and red colors. Once I feel good about the shape of the land, I focus on the sky. I randomly mix in light middle values of Cerulean Blue Deep and Cobalt Blue Hue to see what the mix of color and value looks like. I decide its too light overall, so I add some straight Cobalt Blue Hue to darken the left edge and then create a sky shape moving left to right.

I then turn my attention to the values on the right side where my centers of interest are located. I lighten values on the horizon line as well as the land shape facing into the painting. i also add small small dark shapes to contrast with the lightest values I put in. I make a few final value and shape adjustments and I’m done. The painting took about 20 minutes to paint.

If you'd like to learn about abstract painting and making your own authentic work, then please join me for a painting workshop: (You can view a list of workshops HERE)

As always, thanks for your support!

David


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