TM8899 Gilded Blue I Love You Too 7×7 oil on paper

TM8898 Oh Joy in the Morning 7×7 oil on paper

A while back I wrote of the difficulties of working with yellow: its narrow value range and high key make it the trickster of colors. And yet it is powerful, and a necessary ingredient when painting autumn.

This week I tried two more paintings in which yellow is quite dominant. Both Gilded Blue I Love You Too and Oh Joy in the Morning are about the pleasures of a brisk morning in October. Gilded Blue... has a touch of icy sheen on the sky blue reflections and the geometric shards of reflections also speak to the effects of a cold night followed by a quickly warming morning. Oh Joy in the Morning is just that – an ode to being alive and in a place I love, the woods on an October morning. The trees are brilliantly lemon yellow, yellow green, and golden. They seem to be singing – hardly a dark or deep note to be seen (except a shadowy sliver of reflection). Both paintings rely on a balance of warm and cold color, plus neutrals, to achieve harmony. Oddly, when the painting is in harmony, the painter feels harmony too. Enjoy.