color theory – Michael Newberry

Newberry, Apollo Beach, Violet, Peach, and Gold, 2020, pastel, 18x24 inches — Newberry, Apollo Beach, Violet, Peach, and Gold, 2020, pastel, 18×24 inches

This is my first pastel after teaching a four-day pastel workshop in Palm Desert. The workshop went great and the students did excellent work, not a lemon work among them. I did not even do a demo, but after seeing all the great landscapes it was a hunger satisfied to have empty time and space in my studio to do this pastel.

I chose a peach atmosphere with violet in the distance and ochre in the foreground. It is just crazy that my color theory works (that the light, forms, and depth can flow as a whole).

Decades ago after studying French Impressionists and having no classical training I would “punch” color into shadows by feeling, the results would be hit or miss, but when it worked the feeling is like a delicious swim in Greek cove on a July languid day. I am finding this feeling in abundance and often by implementing this color theory. (Integrating the color of atmosphere, light, shadow, depth, foreground, and the color of the things.)

Michael Newberry, Idyllwild, 11/21/2020