Colorist

[Sharon Knettell]

Here are some examples of colorists at -I think-their best and most inventive.

Manet "At the Bar at the Folies Bergere", Klimt's "Eugenia" a Frieseke's " The Birdcage" and a gorgeous Chinese painting.

Manet, dearest to my heart, was a seminal figure in this movement. Bored out of his gourd , he fled Couture's atelier and left classical realism in it's stale old dust. He started by placing his figures directly facing the light, thus emphasizing the design and placement and lessening the influence of form. "The Bar at the Folies Bergere" is an example of that.


The Klimt painting is a, masterpiece of color organization. I love the way he used the bright green to describe the form of the face. He made a gorgeous painting out of a rather uninteresting subject.

The Frieske painting "The Birdcage" is a masterful play of light and complementary color -yellow and purples.

The 17th Chinese painting is a total delight -an important and overlooked feature in contemporary art. The beautiful arabesque of the pink and red peonies is anchored by that startling teal flower.

[Marvin Mattelson]

Obviously everyone has their own take on what a colorist is. Dictionary.com provides the following definitions:
col?or?ist [kuhl-er-ist]

[Marvin Mattelson]

This is a painting by Paxton called "The Breakfast" which was recently on exhibit at the Smithsonian in Washington DC. The first image is a full crop and the others are details. To me it just doesn't get any better than this.

[Julie Deane]

Thanks for sharing these, Marvin. That first one by Paxton (not the one above - the other post showing the woman with a wallpaper pattern behind her) is amazing. Those touches of bright green seem essential to the piece (I tried covering them up to see the difference with and without).

[Marvin Mattelson]

Hi Julie,
I love these images so much. Paxton just blows my mind. I'm glad you enjoyed it too.

[Steve Craighead]

If I may, I'd like to clear up a slight misunderstanding about Henry Hensche and his method of teaching.
During the Summer months for approximately 60 years (1929-1989) Henry Hensche ran a school in Provincetown, Massachusetts on the tip of Cape Cod called the Cape School. He never thought of his school as a comprehensive art academy. He expected his students to further their art studies elsewhere during the Winter months. Hensche and his teacher before him, Charles Hawthorne, thought of themselves as carrying on the legacy and discoveries of Claude Monet. They sought to teach their students how to paint the effects of sunlight, that is, the light key, the time of day, the weather, etc. They felt that if one painted all the color notes of a scene accurately and placed them correctly that that painting would be truer and more vibrant than a painting that was first drawn and then filled in with color.
Charles Hawthorne, in his school, would have his students paint backlit figures on the beach in order to teach them to see the big color notes. To keep them away from painting features like eyelashes, etc. and to have them concentrate on accurately seeing the color notes, Hawthorne made his students use broad palette knives.
Hensche later refined this method of teaching by having students paint colored blocks outdoors in the yard of his school.
Its true Hawthorne and Hensche discouraged their students from drawing when they were painting their color studies, but that was only in order to teach them to see the big color effects.
Hawthorne and Hensche were in fact very competent draftsman.
Here's an example of what Hawthorne had his students doing.

[Steve Craighead]

And here's an example of what Henry Hensche had his students painting.

[Steve Craighead]

Here are some examples of Henry Hensche's work: