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09 February, 2007

Colorist American Landscapes

Light in Branches, 21" x 13"
Original Pastel
Casey Klahn
$2,000.00
Blue is a color that one can dive into; get lost in. How do you get a "cold" color to glow?

10 comments:

  1. Looks like it's glowing to me! I love this series of landscapes, Casey. Colour like this always excites me - but I'm scared of it. I buy it, make little colour swatches and then line up the tubes or pastels or pencils neatly in my cupboard and do far too little with them.
    I read in Simon Schama's Power of Art that Van Gogh, in a manic spell - swallowed tubes of chrome yellow, cobalt and carmine and washed them down with turpentine before the nurses got to him. I can almost understand that.

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  2. Well, on the hand, it didn't kill him...
    But, don't try that at home, folks!
    I was under the impression that I didn't know much about color when I went pro about 7 or 8 years ago. But, I kind of felt that there might be some innate talent for color in me, so I dove in head first with pastels. I looked as hard as possible at Wolf Kahn's oil paintings, and tried to internalize them.
    Then, for practice, I would analyze his color composition. Say he used orange, violet and green. I would take that triad, turn it one space on the color wheel, and do my own linear composition, using this color composition and produce something. Then, after a few years, the skill with pastels came along.
    Anyway, that's my brief on how to do colors. Be intuitive. Try lots of things. Fail a lot. It is O.K.

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  3. WOW!!!! BEAUTIFUL WORK CASEY! OUTSTANDING! I love your works! You should show more of them!GREAT JOB!

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  4. I don't agree that blue is a cold colour always.It very much depends on the shade of blue. Blue is my favourite colour and I think it reflects calm and imagination. Everybody loves a clear blue sky and because it indicates warmth. I have done very many blue paintings and really have to force myself to use other colours! I could paint endlessly in blue. I like your latest piece.

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  6. That's right, and temperature in color is something that I actually rather dislike. Many yellows can be cooler than some blues.
    When I was coming up, I was taught hue, value and intensity. I behave as though intensity trumps temperature.
    BTW, I favor red, because I "like" both sides of red - the yellow and the blue. The yellow side (or green, if you will) of blue disquiets me. I find it useful, but I don't favor it.
    French ultramarine, however, may be my favorite, uh... I will say my favorite of a 12 color "wheel".
    I was recently challenged by an artist's reference to a 2 color theory. He means red and blue. I suppose that may be a useful tool in realist painting; considering some of the weaknesses in yellow pigments.
    Kind of reminds me of ski waxes. The simple man only waxes with two "colors" of wax.
    Thanks for getting into colors - I love it!

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  7. what lovely work, I've bookmarked your blog to come back to :)

    a fellow colourist :)

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  8. I use French Ultramarine a lot (in oil that is) and it is one of my favourite colours. I have never studied colour theory so it is all instinct with me. Our approaches are really quite different even if we end up in the same place (sometimes!).

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  9. Hello Casey,it's julianne here... This particular pastel is so unique and mesmerizing..wow. I really like your abstract pastels...Oh, on another subject-I have a of couple questions about your blog, I really like the it's done. Thanks for your commentary-I will write soon...keep up those pastels!

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