So much information!
 

What a terrific thread and so many postings of beautiful paintings. I have seen Paxton' s work at museums before and loved them but have never seen "The Breakfast". What a brilliant painting of white on white. Oh to see that one in person!

Along with identifying color as value, hue,temperature and intensity you have to consider the local color and two other influences, color of the light and influence of other local colors.

Color of the light determines if your light areas are warm or cool and that color of light washes over everything creating harmony The shadow is usually the complement with some of the light bounced into it.

The effect of local colors bouncing into each other really hit me when I was trying to paint sunlit grass. I had the color of the grass mixed, the value was correct added some orange for sunlight and was troubled by how flat it looked. It was a clear day with a bright blue sky I picked up a glob of sky color and swiped it across the grass and then the color was true. It was a lesson learned that I consider whenever and whatever I paint now.

Thank you everyone for the postings on this thread there is so much information and it is such a learning experience to see all the approaches to color.

Sharon that photo of the ballerina is stunning. I can only imagine how the colors glow in real life.

Here are some contemporary "colorist" portraits by John Ebersberger http://www.johnebersberger.com/.

Same culture - two harmony's

These are from two Japanese Masters, one is a female artist ! Which ?

I hope you planning on telling us the answer, Alan. I vote for no. 2.
I will not divulge my reasons unless I am proven right!

Julie, I am going to reveal the facts tomorrow.
In the meantime I hope that others will add their thoughts about the reasons why the two pictures are so different in expression.

I am probably prejudiced in my understanding of female artists intentions :sunnysmil but I could'nt help thinking that the two pictures had typical character traits that match the Yin Yang concept.

I vote for #2.

Many years ago, I was attracted to a very tiny painting of an Italian nobleman done in the 14th century. I could not have been more than 9" high and exquisitely painted. What made it so surprising as well is that it was done by a woman and in the 1300's.

I have always signed my name with an S. rather than Sharon as I did not want people to judge me by my sex.

Alan, this would make a wonderful new thread. Was it or wasn't it done by a women- or what are the differences, are they perceivable? Do you think that you could do this?

Alex,
what do you think is the female characteristic of this piece ?

Sharon,
It is a splendid idea, I will think about it, but I don't want to start a battle of the sexes ;)

Alan,

I do think though, that this is getting off topic. When threads become off-topic they become confusing. The original thrust of this thread was about colorists. I do think that although this is an interesting detour, it is a detour non-the-less.