As
promised here is another piece inspired by that clever colourist whose Tate
Modern, London, retrospective ‘Making Visible’ I visited last year (it runs till 9th
March 2014).
I love Paul Klee’s explorative understanding of colour and on seeing Greeting and Separation in the Evening (above) I just thought “wouldn’t these translate into a lovely chest of drawers?”
Greetings from Berlin
These quite tiny watercolour
studies (both done in 1922 and for his students) explore how
complementary colours work together (Klee was a great teacher at the
Bauhaus).
I was really struck by Greeting (above) in which Klee paints shutter-like bands of gradated
colour across a page while differently coloured arrows flow up and down to meet (and greet?). As an exercise in using complementary colours, what I found interesting was the way in which he starts with orange at the bottom
and ends with gluey-grey at the top. In between there is no colour, just white.
I tried the same approach in my studio using Barcelona Orange and Greek Blue from the Chalk Paint® range. I mixed the two complementary colours together, creating a similar effect to Klee's painting but with a dark greyish colour in the centre drawer. I was fortunate to find a chest which has no gaps in the drawers, which really helped create the effect of stripes of colour.
I tried the same approach in my studio using Barcelona Orange and Greek Blue from the Chalk Paint® range. I mixed the two complementary colours together, creating a similar effect to Klee's painting but with a dark greyish colour in the centre drawer. I was fortunate to find a chest which has no gaps in the drawers, which really helped create the effect of stripes of colour.
Get it on your Chest
1. I started on the bottom drawer with
Chalk Paint® in Greek Blue, and then I mixed some Barcelona
Orange until I thought “that’s a nice colour” and painted it on.
2. On the next shelf up I added a
little bit more Barcelona Orange, mixed it in again until I thought “yes, that’s
another nice colour’.
3. I continued upwards, drawer by
drawer, each time adding a bit more Barcelona Orange to make quite gradual
colour gradations (on drawers 1-4).
4. I then made a big jump to
drawers 5 and 6 as I wanted to end up with pure Barcelona Orange.
I really like the overall effect, even
if the gradations are a bit “jumpy” at the top. Actually that might be its
charm because it is not so studied or predictably “colour coded”. (Otherwise, I would
have needed a massively tall piece of furniture!). And all I needed was just two pots of
paint!
The modernist furniture piece was a great canvas to work on too: I painted a graphite line around it and the little brass handles are a lovely touch – a bit like a 1950’s military coat (think Sgt. Pepper's). The overall effect is very pleasing and you see the magic of complementary colours at work!
The modernist furniture piece was a great canvas to work on too: I painted a graphite line around it and the little brass handles are a lovely touch – a bit like a 1950’s military coat (think Sgt. Pepper's). The overall effect is very pleasing and you see the magic of complementary colours at work!
Hope you think so too.
Yours, Annie
