Lost in Translation

Only three colors: black, white and burnt sienna

One afternoon of the workshop in Provence with Maggie Siner, we were challenged to complete our paintings using only three colors: black, white and burnt sienna. The purpose of the exercise was to emphasize the fact that we painters are translating what we see, not reproducing what we see. In other words, given the limited properties of paints, the colors on our canvas can never be exactly the same as we perceive with our eyes---but if we get the relationships of the colors right, our paintings will nonetheless be convincing. This point is made loud and clear by a limited palette exercise, because there is no way that the colors will come even close to the reality of the subject. As a result, the painting must stand or fall solely on the relationships among the colors on the canvas.

Limited Palette Study #1

This session was a real struggle! I almost drowned in the flood of decisions---what's the lightest light, and how can I mix it with just these three colors? the darkest dark? the brightest bright? To mix each color, I also had to compare it to all the others---was it warmer or cooler? darker or lighter? more intense or less intense? Yikes! This is what painting is always about, but without the customary colors, there is no place to run, no place to hide. I painted two paintings in this session. I drifted so far from shore on the first one (above), that Maggie had to throw me a life preserver, and so I must admit that the colors in the painting pictured above are more her work than mine.

Limited Palette Study #2

My second effort (immediately above) was more convincing. I learned from my mistakes, and was able to translate what I was seeing far more successfully. One of my favorite paintings of this session was done by the talented Audrey Rosen. You can see Audrey below, and her limited palette painting is at the top right of the photo. Her work was so skillful that you can hardly tell that she was using only three colors--the painting is truly convincing!

Audrey Rosen and her paintings--limited palette at upper right

Village Lane
8 x 8
SOLD

This exercise was so instructive that I returned to the scene of the crime after the workshop was over. I could not resist seeing if I could "translate" the scene when using my normal palette. The last two images (right and below) are full color paintings of the subjects in the limited palette exercises. They came together pretty quickly, since I had previously worked out the solutions to most of the big questions. But note that I didn't get to the second scene at the same time of day, so the shadows are very different. 

Shadow Patterns
10 x 8