Color Blocks

My art teacher was a student of Henry Hensche. It was his teaching method to have students paint colored blocks in different light as a way to study color. So our assignment is to collect and paint wooden blocks to represent the different color attributes: value, intensity and hue. Then we paint them over and over in different lights. I can see that this will really help me to SEE the colors and the light more accurately. It will also give me the practice and discipline to mix paint efficiently and effectively. It's like playing scales on the piano. Sigh.

I finally found a way to get a little bit more excited about this. I did the study, using cool colors on a cool cloudy morning. There really were no shadows at all. Bowing to the importance of simultaneous contrast (please be impressed), I carefully found the color of the cool, dull cloth underneath the blocks. But what about the rest of the background? It defines the color, too.

And so, kind viewer, can you guess what is at the top of my composition? It is the lovely camelia branches hanging down over the dewy wet garden bed. The color of the soil is accurate, and the three blocks of color for the leaves are very close. I'll see how my teacher reacts to this before I dare to paint in the hummingbird.