Celebrating Autumn
These are a few paintings of autumn that I’ve admired and learned from over the years. There are hundreds of good paintings to choose from but since we all have a life I’ll start with just a few. Autumn gives the artist a chance to work with a lot of color, which is nice after a long summer of green everything. And here in Tucson its a time to get outside and paint, The temperatures are coming down from the 100’s and upper 90’s.
This first painting is by Charles Harold Davis, a tonalist in the late 19th century that changed to impressionism when he returned from his studies in France. He lived and painted in Mystic Conneticut.
This painting below, October Morning, is by Willard Metcalf. The colors are very vibrant but he does use muted colors next to the stronger colors to give them more impact. If all the colors were too saturated they wouldn’t make any statement. Saturated color is color that isn’t dulled down with white or a compliment, more straight from the tube.
This is another painting by Willard Metcalf buts its much more muted in its coloring which gives a totally different effect, more hazy and atmospheric. Here he controls the colors much more with a gray or compliments.
In this Metcalf painting titled The Sillon, theres more balance between the muted and the stronger colors. Not as atmospheric as the last one and not as intense as the first.
