The Painter in oil

emphasize; or mixed through to neutralize, the force of it. Train your eyes to see
what the color is which makes the effect. Analyze it, see the parts in the thing, so that
you may get the thing in the same way, if you would get it of the same force as in
nature.
Practical Color. - All these theoretical ideas as to color have their relation to the
actual handling of pigment, which is the craft of the painter. The facts of contrasting
and harmonizing color relation have a practical bearing on the painter’s work, both
in what he is to express and how he is to do it; as to his conception of a picture and
his representation of facts. In his conception he must deal with the possibilities of
effect of color on color. The power of one color to strengthen the personal hue of
another, or its power to modify that hue, is a fact bearing on whether the color in the
picture is the true image of the color he has seen in his mind. In the same degree
must this possibility affect his representation of actual objects.
The greatest possibilities of luminosity in sunlight or atmospheric effects come
from the power to produce vibration by cool contrasted with warm I color. You will
find that a red is not so rich in any position as when you place its complementary
near it. At times you will find it impossible to get the snap and sparkle to a scarlet -
cannot make it carry, cannot make it felt in your picture as you want it without
placing a touch of purple, perhaps, just beside it; to place near by a darker note will
not have the same effect. It is the contrast of color vibration, not the contrast of light
and shade, which gives the life. And at the same time that you enhance the brilliancy
of the several notes of color in the picture, you harmonize the whole. For the mosaic
of color spots allover the canvas brings about the balance of color in the
composition, and harmony is the result.
Study Relation. - You must constantly study the actual relations of color in
nature. You will find, if you look for it, that always, just where in art you would need
a touch of the complementary for strength or for harmony, nature has put it there.
She does it so subtly that only a close observer would suspect it. Rut the thing is
there, and it is your business to be the close observer who sees it, both for your
training as a colorist, and your use as an interpreter of nature’s beauties. It is your
business to see subtly, for nature uses colors subtly. The note sparkles in nature, but
you do not notice the complementary color near it. Can you not also place the
complementary color so that it is not seen, but its influence on the important color is
felt? It is by searching out these finesses of nature that you train your eye. You must
actually see these colors. At first you may only know that they must be there because
the effect is there. But your eye is capable of actually recognizing them themselves,
and you are no painter till it can. The theoretical knowledge is and should be a help
to you, but the actual power of sight is most important. A painter may use theoretical
knowledge to help his self-training, but power of eye he must have as the result of
that training. The instantaneous recognition of facts and relations, the immediate
and perfect union of eye and thought, are what make that intuitive perception which
is the true feeling of the artist.
Work this out with eye and palette. Study the color and its relation in nature, and
study its analogy in the pigment touches on the canvas.