Painting Color & Light

This week, I've been studying painting light in the impressionist style with Susan Sarback, author of Capturing Radiant Color and Light and founder of the School of Light and Color                          (www.lightandcolor.com).


Her approach is very different from anything I've ever done with oil paints, but it is surprisingly natural and yields results that are very atmospheric. She has adapted the impressionistic approach that she learned from Henry Hensche and made it more user friendly. She is an excellent instructor and clearly explains what she is doing and why during her demo's. She advocates a 4 step process, which really works. In the first stage, you establish color temperature ( light vs shadow) and value. This stage looks awkward, but is a necessary underpainting to eventually get realistic atmosphere. It is so bright it's hard to look at, but it is quickly dulled down in stage 2.

Here's a look at the steps from the underpainting to the final painting in this 4 stage process. These are examples that Susan painted to show the evolution of a painting and shared with the class. They are also in her book.

 Quite a transformation, don't you agree? More to come on this approach later this week...