Six Painting Series from Color Theory: Part 1

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Mid-Twentieth Century American Playground 1
Matthew D. Hughes
Gouache on Bristol
9 1/2 x 12 1/2 inches
2011

* Accepted into the Oklahoma Art Guild's Oklahoma Friendly art show.

Color is one of those subjects that one can learn all about in a short amount of time, yet it can take a lifetime to master its application.

In addition to creating the standard color wheels in class, we also had to paint a six-piece series to demonstrate our knowledge of Johannes Itten's color contrasts. The subject of these paintings was to be either a series of self-portraits or a series based on an object. Since I sometimes like to be different and push the boundaries of what my faculty will allow, I decided to view the term "object" in a  different light. I substituted the word "noun" for "object". Changing that term was liberating. Instead of being constrained to portray a singular object in different views and abstractions, I decided to use a singular object that is made up of other singular objects: a playground. This playground is close to my home and my son's favorite place to go play.

The assignment for this painting was to use Johannes Itten's Color Contrast of Hue. Contrast of Hue is when most of the colors in the composition are at spectral intensity (no desaturation through shading, tinting, toning, or mixing a color with its complement) which creates contrast. In addition to this required use of color, the style of the painting was required to be flat-match contrast. Therefore, volume had to be conveyed through areas of flat color instead of modeling.