"Paintings have a life of their own that derives from the painter's soul." Vincent Van Gogh

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Sunset at the Beach


This little oil (8x10) is a study in catching the back light on a figure. One of my favorite colors lately is vermillion and I used it mixed with white and a bit of alizarin crimson in this study. Vermillion is a color that the masters used in their skin tones. It was originally formulated from cinnabar and I have tried several brands - Winsor and Newton which is a deep pink, Rembrandt which is close to a cadmium orange in hue and Senneler which is a cross between the two - not as orange as the Rembrant and not as pink a the Winsor & Newton. The differences in hue are apparently due to the size of the ground particles. The larger the crystal the more the color tends toward red. I like them all but keep going back to the Winsor & Newton.

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