Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Color Abstraction


Grand Cycle  color pencils 13x16"

This was an exercise in color theory and abstraction that I started in one of the classes I attended when I first tried my hand in art about fifteen years ago.  We had to bring a picture of a landscape to class and then proceeded to strip it down to the most basic shape and form.  Then starting with warmest red to the coolest violet, we had to color the forms from foreground to background in order of the warm-cool scale regardless of what color the object was in the reference picture.  Of course, having chosen color pencils as my medium to do the exercise, I was too slow to complete it in class. Many years later I went back to it and finished it with a modified version of the instructions as by then I couldn't remember much about the rules we were supposed to follow. 

Recently, I came across a quote by artist  Marc Chagal that explains the color theory succintly:  All colors are friends of their neighbors and the lovers of their opposites.  I also just now discovered that googling 'color theory' yields a wonderful collection images and information! So off I go to explore :)

14 comments:

Heera said...

Very interesting! I love contrasts in play.

Kathy Staicer said...

The colors and shapes are wonderful and I love the quote about color relationships!!!

Anudeepa Kadiresan said...

beautiful Meera,I think u have depic the tree s and leaves ...the colors are contrast and it makes to think..

Meera Rao said...

Thank You Heera mangala :) Funny how I had to try hard to not bring in texture :)

Kathy, the quote is a favorite of mine :)

Thank you Anudeepa -- it was interesting way to learn color theory.

padmaja said...

That sounds like a fabulous exercise to start with an abstract and the challenge lies in the way you try to reduce everything to basic shapes and of course choose the colors.. I loved the way you went about it Meera, how did you arrive at the texture that I am seeing here?

AK said...

really interesting work Meera.

Meera Rao said...

Thank you Padmaja-- I worked on cold press watercolor paper and the texture comes from that :)

Thanks AK!

Teuvo Vehkalahti said...

Thanks you visit my blog and thanks you comments.

Teuvo

FINLAND

Thaikaden said...

Beautiful work

Meera Rao said...

@Teuvo - you are welcome.

@ Thaikaden --Thank you !

Unknown said...

This is interesting. I wish I could take a class like you did. I have so much to learn. Thanks for sharing it! It's a wonderful piece of art, and to know that it's based on a landscape makes it even more wonderful!

Meera Rao said...

Thank you Katherine :) I learn a lot from fellow artists on the blog and try to pass on what I have learned too. Where would I be without all the generous artists and teachers!

Unknown said...

I like this. The forms and spaces.

Meera Rao said...

Thanks Rajeev. I happy how it turned out!

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