It’s not easy being green
Do you avoid using green? Mike Barr dispels some rumours and says that achieving the right green is a journey well worth undertaking
Almost as soon as we take up painting, we start hearing rumours about the colour green. The main two are that it’s difficult to use and that green paintings are hard to sell. Firstly, the difficulty aspect of green is true – so few artists can handle green well yet despite that, there are more green paintings that you can poke a stick at. Many UK artists are experts at it – they have to be!
Mixed-up greens
Discovering good greens is a triumph for a painter and mostly they don’t come straight out of a tube. Many artists don’t have a tube green on their palette, preferring to mix the greens from other colours. Other artists, like myself, use a base green but always mix it with other colours.
Viridian is a terrible green, but it’s a great traffic-light green when mixed with white and, used in conjunction with other colours like yellow ochre or sienna, it can produce wonderful, muted greens. Mixed with cadmium yellow it can make vivid, sunlit greens. Every artist has their own favourites.
Even though green may have a bad reputation there are artists who can make it sing. While walking around a recent art show I was asked by a group of artists if I had seen anything I really liked. I had, and green figured largely in it. The painting had a grey backdrop comprising of grey buildings with the green foliage of plane trees in the foreground. The sun was catching the greens and casting marvellous green-hued shadows on the wall. Greens are on their best behaviour when they have a grey backdrop, and this is borne out on a grey stormy day when a sunlit tree is back-dropped by a grey, brooding sky. For me it was the stand-out painting of the show and had I been the judge, it would have been the best in show.
Green paintings don’t sell?
Well, the painting in question did sell and for a pretty penny. I think we can safely say that good green paintings sell! Personally, I tend to avoid bright greens. I live in an area where greens are largely muted, but I totally admire those artists who have mastered this colour. It’s always a delight to behold.
Getting greens right is a journey that is well worth undertaking. It takes some experimenting and patience but this is one of the joys of being a painter.