Recently I completed five paintings with a more subtle, or narrower color range than I usually paint with. I've been trying to restrict myself lately, beginning with backgrounds of grays, browns, and beige in order to see what will happen with a more limited palette. Of course, that doesn't mean I can't resist sneaking in other colors, but that I will do it in a more subtle and limited way rather than going "wild with color" as I usually do.
What is the point in this exercise? For one thing, I think I sometimes get so overwrought with color that I need a change just for the sake of the contrast. In my life and in my art, I tend to go overboard in one direction, then to pull back forcefully in the opposite. I'm working at staying in the middle more, at least as far as my moods go, but I am basically not a middle-of-the-road person.
Here are two of the paintings, "In Memory Of" and "Focus on Wild."
In the next painting, "Red Key," you'll see I added subtle touches of red, green and blue:
Finally, I did these small twin paintings, 24" x 24" each, called "Visitation One" and "Visitation Two."
