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Success in selecting a palette dependson recognition of a strong feeling orintention from within. By doing this

the artist will be able to envisage what thefinished painting will look like and workbackwards, considering which palette willallow the kinds of hues required for thedesired end result.

Colour keys The principal groups of colours arearranged in the following major keys:

PrimariesThe red/blue primary with guestcomplementary orange The red/blue primary with guest greenThe blue/yellow primary with guestorangeThe blue/yellow primary with guest violetThe red/yellow primary with guest violetThe red/yellow primary with guest green

ComplementariesThe complementary with guest blueThe complementary with guest yellowThe complementary with guest red

Sub primariesThe degraded primaryThe monochrome blue with guest spotdegraded complementaryThe monochrome red with guest spotcomplementaryThe monochrome yellow with guest spotdegraded complementary

EarthThe heightened earth palette

Primary key red/blue withguest orange For this I have chosen three reds and threeblues that have distinctive differenceswithin them, be it tone, opacity, and/orbehaviour when applied to a surface (top).The key when adopting a restrictedpalette is to allow yourself the biggestrange of colour choices that your chosenparameters will allow. The reward ofworking in such a way will be colourharmony throughout your composition.

Old Holland cobalt blue turquoise lightis a semi-opaque colour with a lot ofversatility. In this palette it can play the

C O L O U R M I X I N G

A theory of colour: 2In his second article, Hugo Grenville advises on selecting a palette and puttingthe theory into practice

Primary key red/blue with guest orange.Reds – Old Holland magenta, Winsor & Newtonrose madder deep, Winsor & Newton vermilionhueBlues – Michael Harding cerulean, MichaelHarding ultramarine, Old Holland cobalt blueturquoise lightEarths – Old Holland warm grey light, rawumber, transparent oxide red lake and Payne’sgrey

A wide range of greys can be mixedfrom these reds and blues

role of green and creates fresh mintyhues when mixed with white. It is a verycool blue. Cerulean blue has similaropacity but is a lot more 'primary', ie it iscloser to a perceived 'pure' blue. It alsohas less of a green tinge, but is still cool.French ultramarine, the warmest blue, isa transparent colour that creates milkyviolet grey-blues when mixed withwhite.

Old Holland magenta, an explosion ofpure brilliant transparent red-pink, mixesbeautifully with cobalt blue turquoiselight to create cool violets with hints ofgrey. Winsor & Newton’s vermilion hue ismore orange-red and is more opaquethan magenta, but because it is a hue (a substitute pigment for genuinevermilion), it has less influence when usedin colour mixing. However, when mixingvermilion with the three blues to achievegreys, it is less likely to overpower theblues. Winsor & Newton’s rose madder

deep is a transparent gentle colour thatcreates beautiful blossom pinks whenmixed with white. These pinks are mosteffective as accents or highlights,scumbled over cooler hues. The range ofpinks that can be mixed using theoranges and the reds and warm grey lightare illustrated (above), and the range of

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violets that can be mixed is indicated inthe chart top right.

Earth coloursEarth colours are the muted hues thatground the painting and stopcompositions becoming too saccharine.Warm grey light is a useful colour andfeatures in almost all my paintings. Itstransparency and lightness of tone makeit a great mixer when white is too light orhas too much influence when colourmixing. In this palette it is also great forplaying the role of yellow in its absence,especially when mixed with a small touchof orange, and makes a range of coolearthy greens and green-greys whenmixed with the blues, as shown in mychart (right). Raw umber is a heavy, moreopaque and dark-toned hue. Mixed withcerulean blue it makes bold, dark brownsthat are useful in areas where black is tooharsh. Cerulean blue, raw umber andwhite create cooler light greys for areaswhere warm grey light is too yellow.

Old Holland transparent oxide red lake isthe closest earth colour to a primary andcould be regarded as a degraded red inanother example of a blue/red palette. Itspresence in this palette tips the red/bluebalance and the effect of this is that youwill feel as if you have more reds to workwith than any other colour. That said it is awonderful sister to the more primary reds,creating beguiling green-greys whenmixed with cobalt turquoise blue light.

Payne’s grey is my preferred alternativeto ivory black in this palette, for thereason that it achieves a greater balance,playing the sister role to the three blues ina similar way as transparent oxide reddoes to the three reds. Therefore it can be

used fresh out of the tube for the darkestaccents in your composition, as well asmixed with the various reds to make anarray of grey-violets.

DiscordThe presence of Scheveningen orangepresents a discord, in that small quantitiesin a composition will make a statementproclaiming the achieved harmony of therest of the colours used. The smallestamount of inconsistency within a paletteprovides a deliberate contrast that givesvisual intrigue. With the presence ofvermilion hue in this example the orangedoes not appear as discordant as it couldin other blue/red palettes, yet it does

comparatively appear unrelated. Whenmixed with white Scheveningen orangeappears slightly pink, and also createsgreys and violets when mixed with thedifferent blues.

Depending on how you use thisrestricted palette you can achieve alargely cool composition or somethingwarmer. However, your composition is notgoing to be very hot with the absence ofyellow.

Primary key blue/yellowwith guest violetThe range of greens you can achieve withjust two yellows, two blues and two earthcolours is shown in my colour chart (page44). For this very restricted interpretationof the blue/yellow with guest violet

palette I have chosen OldHolland golden green andIndian yellow orange lakeextra. These are verytransparent and thereforeeasy to mix with othercolours, yet still maintain atransparent luminosity. Bychoosing a green-yellowand an orange-yellow I havegot a very clear difference incolour temperature withinmy yellow menu. Becauseultramarine blue is also atransparent colour, thegreens made by mixing itwith the two yellows aremore transparent thanthose made by mixing withthe more opaque ceruleanblue.

I have deliberately chosentwo earth colours that have

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PracticalThis is the range ofreds and pinks thatcan be mixed fromthe oranges, redsand warm greylight

This is therange of violets

that can bemixed

Earth palette

from ?

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a noticeable tendency towards one of thetwo primaries featured in this palette.Degraded greens can be achieved bymixing the yellow earth colourtransparent oxide yellow with the'primary' cerulean blue and ultramarineblue, and mixing the bluey Payne’s greywith the primary Indian yellow andgolden green. Also notice that whenmixing the transparent oxide yellow withthe Payne’s grey, an even more degradedshade of green is achieved.

TemperatureThe colour temperature of the greens is,as expected, determined by the influenceand temperature of their make-up, eg theopaque, strong and cool cerulean bluecreates a cooler green when mixed withIndian yellow than the green created byIndian yellow and the relatively warmerand transparent ultramarine.

The complementary violet serves as adirect contrast to the yellows and blues.This chart begins to indicate the kinds ofblue-violet and grey you can achieve bymixing violets and blues; a range ofdegraded pinks/oranges can converselybe achieved by mixing the violet with theyellows.

Complementary palettewith guest blueThe achievable dusty pinks, greys andearthy greens that will sing in perfectharmony with your three complementarycolours are shown in the chart (top right).Such a palette will achieve a greater rangeof hues (with the inclusion of four 'purecolours' that would appear on aconventional colour wheel, as opposed to

three). This is the most diverse palette,within my theory, that would besuccessful in achieving coherency; anyartist using it should, when needing a red(or yellow) not reach for a tube ofvermilion but mix a degradedinterpretation of the colour using orangesand violets.

ConclusionUltimately, colour does not exist in its ownright, but only in relation to what is putbeside it. It is my deeply held belief that apainting cannot contain more than twoprimary colours without the primarycolours competing against each other, orclashing or, if you make secondary andtertiary colours from them, becomingrather muddy and uninteresting.Colourism is about the dominance andemotional expression inherent in colour,so for instance you patently cannot havean essentially orange and pink still life if itis also trying to be yellow.

C O L O U R M I X I N G

Primary key blue/yellow withguest violet.Old Holland golden green, Indianyellow orange lake extra,ultramarine blue, cerulean blue,transparent oxide yellow, Payne’sgrey

Complementary palette withguest blue

Cobalt blue turquoise light (guestblue), Scheveningen orange

(complementary), cinnabar greenlight (complementary), cobalt violet

deep (complementary), Naplesyellow reddish extra (earth), ivory

black (earth). A range of dustypinks, greys and earthy greens can

be mixed from this palette

Still Life with Anemones and EquestrianFigure, oil on canvas, 30�24in (76�61cm).The greenish-blues appear bright blue incontrast to the orange background and theearthy-green leaves of the flowers, but theactual pigments used to make these hues(cobalt turquoise, violet-grey, cobalt greenturquoise and blue-grey) are a long way fromanything approaching a primary blue. Theviolets, greens, greys, turquoise-greens andeven the pinks are predominantly cool, leavingjust the background orange and the red-pinkflowers and apple as contrasting warm areas.The still life was conceived essentially as acomplementary palette with a guest red. If youplace a strong yellow against these colours,the subtle relationships between the orangesand pink-violets is smashed at a stroke. Theactual pigments used in this palette (greens:cobalt green turquoise, cinnabar green extradeep, Hooker’s green, golden green; violets:ultramarine violet, ultramarine red-pink;oranges: cadmium yellow extra deep, cadmiumyellow-orange; reds: Old Holland bright red;earth: raw umber, blue-grey) reflect my beliefthat a painting cannot contain more than twoprimary colours without the primary colourscompeting against each other or clashing, or, ifyou make secondary and tertiary colours fromthem, becoming rather muddy anduninteresting

Hugo Grenville teaches courses on visuallanguage and colour at his studios inLondon, and Majorca. Seewww.hugogrenville.com for details, orcall Lisa Freeman on 07764 500 397.Hugo has recently shown at WallyFindlay International in New York andPalm Beach.

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