Colour for Artists, Part 1 of 3. With Alan McGowan

Scottish artist Alan McGowan examines how colour works in painting, in light and pigment, and how artists can use this to understand colour mixing and the colour worlds they and other artists create in their pictures.

[@fionaclasen1511]

Very useful and thought provoking...thanks

[@alanmcgowanart6321]

Glad you think so!

[@ellejake1]

Excellent analysis of colour, I particularly like the term Colour worlds! I am understanding more why My colour worlds are mostly saturated! Thank you. Look forward to the next two. Ellie Jakeman. 🙂

[@alanmcgowanart6321]

The 3rd one will be mostly about colour worlds and colour space.

[@suemacmillan5456]

Cannot thank you enough for taking the time to make this. My attempts to desaturate colour will no longer be hit or miss!

[@alanmcgowanart6321]

Glad I could help!

[@daveemerson]

Great series on color Alan. Very well done. Thanks for putting this together and sharing.

[@alanmcgowanart6321]

Thanks Dave

[@maggiefratkin8836]

Thank you also much. Very clearly explained. ‼️❤️

[@rosalyjohnston7274]

Hi Alan, thank you for this video about colour in painting. I have found it helpful, especially the colourwheel illustration showing desaturated colour and the idea of 'colourspace'. I'm looking forward to the next two parts of this series.

[@alanmcgowanart6321]

Glad it was helpful!

[@uflashman]

Many thanks for this. Thought I knew everything about colour, now I know better. This will definitely help me.

[@MrLjw1001]

Very nice talk. Thank you

[@alanmcgowanart6321]

You're welcome.

[@dianahand5916]

I cannot wait to watch this. Thank you, Alan. I know it will be packed with insights and usual information.

[@alanmcgowanart6321]

Have fun!

[@christophermcelhinney1365]

Really fascinating, looking forward to the next videos -thanks very much

[@alanmcgowanart6321]

Cheers Chris

[@elizabethvischer3745]

Fantastic video. Took oodles of notes. Massively helpful.... thank you!

[@alanmcgowanart6321]

Great to hear!

[@janeburnham3360]

Really well explained and enlightening. Many thanks, and looking forward to the next two!

[@alanmcgowanart6321]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@michaelsellar3538]

Very helpful video, thanks. Find it too easy to consider only some aspects of colour (like tone) and in haste (but enjoyment too), neglect elements - like saturation. I’ll be slowing down and trying to consider those other elements. Thanks for the inspiration!

[@luisfernandez-izquierdo502]

Fantastic, a great insight into the world of color, enjoyed every minute of it, clear and revealing with very interesting reflections along the way. Can't wait for the next one :-)

[@alanmcgowanart6321]

Thanks Luis. Hope you're well.

[@luisfernandez-izquierdo502]

@@alanmcgowanart6321 I'm fine thanks Alan, hope you too. It's great to see you in this initiative of yours, I'm enjoying it a lot and finding it very valuable.

[@normanharvey5832]

Great Alan, hope you and your family are well.

[@alanmcgowanart6321]

Cheers Norman. Thanks, you too!

[@illtyboi]

Thanks Al'. Bendigedig!

[@alanmcgowanart6321]

Cheers Illty!

[@kiritsi100]

Hi Alan. Really great explanation of color on all 3 of these videos. I've been painting for many years but seem to steer away from desaturated colors. Very influenced by abstract expressionism. I just recently started using more grays and trying to make my color more specific in the main areas I want to emphasize. Very hard for me to do though. Would you say Van Gogh used much gray or desaturated colors? Would love to see you break down one of his paintings. Thanks again!

[@alanmcgowanart6321]

Hi Andy. Glad you enjoyed the videos. I wouldn't say I'm an expert on Van Goch, though I like his work and think he would make a very interesting case study in terms of colour. As I say I'm not an expert on his development but it seems to fall broadly into two distinct phases. In his early work he is working largely with an earth palette, so quite desaturated, leaning towards the warm side of the spectrum, desaturated yellows and oranges (basically browns, umbers and ochres) Working in a classic tradition and influenced by painters like Millet and Courbet. Paintings like the potato eaters etc. At some point he comes under a more "modern" influence of more saturated colours. Influenced I guess by divisionism, by Seurat etc and this is seen also in the pointilist style brushwork that comes into his work, and this is his more famous more "mature" style. In fact in the Van Goch museum in Amsterdam (the last time I was there) they basically divided his work into the early earth palette works and later more colourful paintings. Gaugins approach to colour would also have been an influence and I think that is slightly different to Seurat. Suerat is basically using saturated colours to achieve a cleaner, brighter "optical mixing" which will tend towards (his theory of) visual experience. So it in a sense slightly more "correct", more effective visually. In Gaugin's case the use of colour is more for symbolic purposes ("use your best yellow, etc), though still tending towards the use of more saturated colours. So Gaugin and Seurat would both have had an influence on Van Goch's later more saturated use of colour. I think in Van Goch's later painting there is use of desaturated colour in conjunction with the more saturated colour - it is often effective to use a combination of both so they can work together (as harmonies, complementaries etc). In doing this he uses cool desaturated colours (greys, pale greens and blues, ) as much as warm (so not leaning on that early "brown" palette). If I were to look into this this more I would be tempted to investigate if the colour palettes of some of the northern European French/Flemish painters like Bastien Lepage had at some point an influence on his work. Though it would be subtle. In the end I think his colour use, which is definately pretty saturated in his mature works, is mostly used for expressive purposes, reaching inside himself as much as out to the visible world.

[@kiritsi100]

@@alanmcgowanart6321 Thanks so much for your insight and thoughts. They make a lot of sense. Really appreciate it! Look forward to seeing you possibly break down some of his later work in one of your videos. Don’t think that’s ever been done. Thanks again!

[@audreymitchell4068]

I found this really interesting and informative. When will the next one be available?

[@alanmcgowanart6321]

Probably in a few days