Well, here goes. I have read this forum for a long time, but this is my first real post.
I am a little hesitant to put in my two cents on this subject, since I have noticed that some artists are passionately opposed to high chroma in painting. I personally can appreciate many kinds of art and will use whatever approach I think will work best for particular circumstances. I have also studied with great teachers on both sides of the spectrum, so to speak
When I hear the word colorist, I usually think of someone painting plein air rather than in a studio and I believe that a completely different approach is necessary when painting a subject posed out of doors rather than in the studio.
After viewing Henry Hensche’s work, posted by Steve Craighead, it is apparent that his color is very subdued in the indoor portrait (the seated boy) when compared with the outdoor still life. I don’t see this portrait as being a particularly “colorist” work of art and I believe it illustrates my point that painting indoors and outdoors require completely different approaches.
When painting a portrait out of doors, all the usual rules go out the window. Light is bouncing everywhere. There is a definite bluish influence on the upper planes of the face from the sky. Everything facing the ground usually has a yellow or greenish cast depending on whether there is grass.
The canvases of the Impressionists contain explosions of color (in contrast to studio landscapes done in prior times) since they were able to paint plein air with ease due to the portability of the metal paint tube. They were able to capture the true light key, with artists such as Monet painting the same scene at different times of the day and paying careful attention not only to the drawing but also to the specific color notes that made up the shadow and light shapes.
I thought that some members may be interested in seeing a few studies done during a week spent painting on the beach in Provincetown with Cedric and Joanette Egeli, who both studied with Henry Hensche. We did many studies of models on the beach each day, using mainly a palette knife on gessoed boards. We worked in the morning, took a two hour break at midday and painted again in the late afternoon. These are not finished paintings, but quick sketches which were done in a very short period of time. The goal was to try to and achieve the correct light key, the right value relationships and spots of color to capture the time of day and weather conditions. It is interesting how colorful white fabric can be on the beach.
When trying to get the correct light key, colors are not necessarily matched. They are interpreted. For instance, to get the warm effect of blue in sunlight you actually often end up using pink rather than a paler blue, which would look too cold. It sounds crazy, but it works!
Also, when working out of doors there is an even greater need to compress the value range than indoors since the separation between the brightest light (nothing is brighter than the sun) and the darkest dark is far greater than the white and black paints we have at our disposal. Therefore, if we attempt to exactly match particular areas of what we are seeing, we will not get the overall impression of the entire scene, although parts may be exactly correct.
Colorist painting, just like any other style of realist painting, is not just about color – it is getting the correct color in relationship to all the other colors in the right value in the right place.