As the outdoor temperature read 7 degrees yesterday, I settled down to a long day of painting. I was enjoying listening to an art podcast while I painted. The artist was talking about warm and cool colors used for darks and lights. It got me to think about the dark colors I was using in the crab tree painting – blue, a cool color when it should be warm for a painting of crabapple blossoms on a warm, sunny spring day. I added an overcoat of a warm brown to the tree branches and I think it improved the picture.
I’m dyslexic and this affects my use and interpretation of warm and cool colors. I feel blue and greens as warm colors. They make me think of sunny summer days and fields of green grass, not of ice. I think of reds as autumn leaves and a time the weather gets cooler, not fire. Usually this isn’t a problem, except when the weather changes and I adjust the car temperature. I’m constantly turning on the heater during the summer and the air conditioning in the winter. (The heat and the cool air are indicated by the colors red and blue.)
Today I am back in the studio, with some hot coco, painting the crabapple blossoms. I’m trying to remember that the crabapple tree in my backyard will look very different in just two months from now.
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