The Wearing (and painting) of the Green

Redemption
24" x 30"
oil on canvas

Green is one of those colours that a lot of artists have trouble coming to grips with.  Me included.  Maybe it's not so much the colour but the subject as I think of landscape frequently when I think of greens and the vastness of landscapes can be daunting.

I can't give you a precise formula for mixing greens, as I use so many small amounts of other colours when creating a colour which is specific to the subject and light.  But I can share the basic colours that I do use as the hopping off points for many different shades of green.

On my palette you'll always find

• Ultramarine Blue
• Pthalo Blue (green shade)
• Cadmium yellow light or medium
• Cadmium lemon 

ultramarine blue and cad yellow light
pthalo blue and the cad lemon

These two mixes provide strong basic greens to which I can lighten with the yellow or darken with more blue, changing the way they "lean" i.e. warmer or cooler. With the addition of other colours I can create other hues.

You can watch a short Youtube video I made on basic colour mixing here to see some of the base greens that I mix using these colours.  And another on colour matching here. This one deals with the principle of colour mixing and doesn't specifically deal with the colour green.

Celebrating St. Patrick's Day?  Let your walls join in and celebrate "the wearing of the green" all year round!  Save 17% from March 16 - 23 on select original green paintings.  Click here to see what's available.

And Happy St. Patrick's Day!