One colour

One thing I have learned from painting is that nothing is one colour.

By the time you take into consideration the light hitting an object, the shadows, reflected hues, variations in the surface, imperfections, curves and angles, the desire to create shape and form using warm and cool options and the sometime need to break up large, possibly distracting, areas there can be many colours that make up each subject and its component parts.

Nothing is as simple as it may seem at first. We need to observe carefully to discern what it is we need to do to create a realistic or engaging piece of art. Even in abstract varieties, combinations and, at times, contrasts are essential. They say painting is as much looking as it is applying media to a surface. We need to study the subject or study the work. Indeed, we need to do both.

The transfer of all of this to wider life is, perhaps, obvious and it may be labouring the point to explain. Suffice to say, I need to remember that things are more complex than I may think at first. What we ‘know’ may not be the entire truth. Just as a flower stem never appears as a single green, I must assume that no person, situation, relationship or interaction is of a singular nature either.

A bit philosophical today. Must be the coffee.

Until later,

Kirsten