ABOVE
In Sunset Mesa (8x16),
the color red is all about
creating drama. Using Blue
Earth pastels, I painted the
sunlit portion of the mesa
with mid-value warm reds;
one might think of a sunny
mesa as being quite light,
but to preserve the richness
of the red, I went a little
darker. For the distant
formations, I used cooler
reds in keeping with the
effects of aerial perspective.
In the shadowed foreground,
I used darker, even richer reds
to indicate warmth, interspers-
ing them with cool and warm
greens to create an engaging
set of contrasts to create a little
foreground interest.
LEFT
To indicate a sense of distance
in Mitten Ridge View (12x12),
I used mostly neutral reds in the
far rock formations, keeping
the richer, warmer reds for the
sunlit and shadowed portions
in the foreground. A little green
here and there adds interest.be mixed from other pigments. Red is
often such a strong color that it needs
to be used sparingly or with modifica-
tion. But we do love it, don’t we?
A Brief History
Red is commonly found in the earth
as a form of iron oxide (rust), and
it has been mined as red ochre and
hematite for thousands of years. In
a cave in South Africa, paleoanthro-
pologists discovered evidence of it
having been ground 170,000 years
ago, probably for body decoration. In
King Tutankhamen’s tomb in Egypt,
archaeologists found a 3,000-year-oldivory painter’s palette daubed with
red ochre. In ancient Rome, the
poisonous red lead was beloved by
artisans. In a fourth-century temple
in the Mayan city of Palenque,
cinnabar—an equally poisonous
red containing mercury—covered
the skeleton and ceremonial itemsArtistsNetwork.com 19