Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Limited Color Palette

I recently visited the Farnsworth Museum in the cute coastal town of Rockland, Maine.  It is so exciting to see what color palette great art masters like the Wyeth family uses.  N. C. Wyeth was an American artist and illustrator for such books as Treasure Island, Robin Hood and The Last of the Mohicans.  His son, Andrew Wyeth, was one of the best known artist of the 20th century and I have always admired his son's work, James Wyeth.  The museum had pieces from all three generation of artists.  I was awestruck by the beauty that each of them could portray with a monochromatic or an analogous color scheme (if you are taking my online color class right now, you are familiar with these terms!).  Here below is an example from each of the Wyeths.  I chose these paintings to share because of their use of a limited palette.
"The Hunter" by N.C. Wyeth.  Powerful and bold - look at the beautiful use of a limited palette and a splash of red!

"Master Bedroom" by Andrew Wyeth.  This painting tells such a wonderful story, all again with a very limited palette.  I want to curl up with that dog!

James Wyeth, Beautiful use of limited palette of blues and yellows.

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