- "Color Study for "Pigments""
- David Jamieson
- Oil on Canvas Paper
- 5" x 6"
David has been working on a new still life painting recently of an arrangement of pigment jars. The contrast of chroma between the colorless glass with gray background and the richly colored pigments is what he found attractive about this image. The painting is in progress and will be finished soon, but we thought the initial color study was worth sharing.
David does a color study for nearly all of his paintings, and students often ask why. Why spend time on a painting if it's not the "real thing"? David always explains that it's kind of like writing a draft for an essay. We're all taught in high school to write drafts of papers in advance of the finished product as a way of refining the argument and clarifying the expression. Although many of us didn't take this suggestion, and instead wrote our papers the night before they were due, it is nevertheless good advice. Drafts can help you know where you're headed, anticipate problems and make writing the final version go more smoothly. The same holds true for painting. Color studies can help an artist familiarize him/herself with a subject - the structure of surfaces and light that make up an image – and also with the physical paint mixutres that are most appropriate for the painting. The opportunity to experiment on a small, quick version of the painting, where there is no need to bother with careful drawing or composition is a welcome chance to solve color problems in advance and avoid mistakes in the final version. Painters, too, ought to refine their arguments and clarify their expression.
It's good to see that David has finally learned this lesson of high school, and now undertakes studies of this kind for every painting.
