Callaway Painter Betty McLendon has been busy in her studio working from plein air studies and photographs taken this past Spring at Callaway Gardens. Yesterday she mailed me a butterfly and peony painting that's on her easel now. This is an acrylic painting on 16x20 panel. While looking at it, it occurred to me that this is a great example of using complementary colors, which is one of the five great color schemes that most successful paintings are based on.
Complementary colors are directly opposite each other on the wheel. Color contrast is at a maximum. This painting plays up the red-orange tones of the peony against the blue greens of the trees and lake.
In a complementary scheme, as in any color scheme, there has to be dominant and subordinate colors, just the same as with masses and values. In Betty's painting she has placed the peony and butterfly in the foreground so the predominance of green-blue in the background will make the red-orange peony stand out. If she had chosen a different color for the peony she would have lost some of the pop this painting has. This painting is also a good example of using warm and cool colors to play against each other.
To make the trees go back even more all Betty has to do is make some value changes to go lighter and use softer edges with the background greens and blues creating the allusion of air space or distance. Using this same palette Betty can make a variety of greens which is another thing that is fun to experiment with and something I’ve been working on with my paintings this year.
Good job Betty.
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