Changing the Mood

The connections between color and mood

have long been a subject of debate and

scientific study.  Since I love color I

enjoy these studies and am always game to do a little

experimenting on my own.

Taking the same photo reference I have used in a couple of paintings earlier I decided to see how I could convey a different feeling using composition and color.  These were not going to be large, finished studies but quick draws to see what I could make happen in a crude sort of way.

Here is the barn, alone and on the hill.  Another sketch below moves the barn:

And yet another adds a path:

So these 3 sketches changed the composition and, I thought, already altered the mood of the scene.

On smallish canvases I started with acrylic paints to get something laid in quickly.  These are photographed together but I actually painted them one at a time so as not to confuse my own sense of where they were attempting to go.

Already you can see color differentials; upper R - light, maybe springish, sunshine, below - sense of soltitude but not sad due to blue skies and some foreground energy, lower L - darker, maybe stormy and a road which by-passes the far away barn.

Obviously I did not push the color beyond realism, some folks would get a big nothing from a purple barn in an orange field (besides, I've been there...!) I wanted to see what I could do with local color (i.e. the color as seen in nature).

I did a little bit more work on these canvas in oil, making more changes as I worked.  You be the judge as to how they affect you in ascertaining a certain mood (I think of the barn having its own feelings as does the environment; you may also think about how the scene affects your own mood.)

Above I darkened up the baby blue skies...did a storm threaten?

Here I implied a season by using flower colors, sunshine and cloud shadows on the grass, is the barn still important to the composition?

In the final iteration I worked on a pathway that leads away from the barn and darkened any detail it would have if it were lighter in color.  

All of these are a long way from a finished version, they are crude and very raw, but I enjoyed the exercise of manipulating a photograph and playing artist in creating a different feeling from the same ingredients.  Since I have answered some of my own questions there is no need to complete them...I'll file under "study" and move on.

Look at the art you surround yourself with: are there variations in the moods and colors or do you tend to one direction?  There is no right or wrong answer....it's simply a thought.  What I might hang for "healing" would not be what I would choose for "action."  Just another aspect to creating a well planned piece of art.

Colorful wishes,

Cindy