Speaking of Art Blog

Catbird Seat, pastel, 9x12"

My title for this blog post sounds like a mouthful, like a complicated subject, doesn’t it?  Actually, it’s not.  I will never forget how my one art instructor grabbed my attention when he was introducing the topic to our class.  A student had just asked him if a certain color pastel stick that she was holding up would work on a certain spot on her painting in progress.  His short, witty response was, “I have no idea.  We’ll never know until you try it.”  What did he mean?

His point was that all colors, when you isolate them, look a certain way to us.  For instance, these are 2 of the 20 shades of green that I used in the background of my latest pastel, Catbird Seat.  When seen here against a white paper they look like 2 shades of green, no big deal. 

But now look at them in my painting. 

Number 1 looks quite similar to what you see of it in isolation, but look at color number 2.  Wow, what the heck?  It’s so light and bright that it looks like yellow.  How can that be?  Well, it’s because it’s placed next to color number 3, a very cool green that leans heavily toward blue-green.  And that’s simultaneous contrast.  A color in isolation might look one way, but put it next to another color and it suddenly seems to shift on the color wheel.  That’s because colors affect each other, some way more than others, and you won’t know how much a color is affected until it is placed next to another color.  If two colors are on opposite sides of the color wheel and are placed next to each other, they will seem to vibrate.  Other colors look beautiful together and are harmonious.  And still others seem to make one of them shift, and that is what has happened to color number 2 in my background.  It looks lighter and more yellow when placed next to a cooler, bluer green.

So, what does that mean for the artist?  It means that you can’t simply hold a pastel stick up in the air and automatically know how it will look on your surface.  You have to try a few strokes in the spot where you want to place it, and because of simultaneous contrast, you just might be surprised when the color shifts right before your eyes.  If that happens it will be because of the color or colors next to or surrounding it.  Or it might interact with your paper color in an unexpected way.  But you’ll never know until you try it.

Simultaneous contrast is what makes me say every once in a while, “What the heck?  I’m holding this color in my hand, but it looks totally different when I apply it to my surface.  What the heck?”  In fact, if you can’t remember the term SIMULTANEOUS CONTRAST, maybe just call it WHAT THE HECK?

BTW, in the pic with my hand holding the pastels, the catbird in my painting was overseeing my development of this blog post, and it approves this message.