Overlapping/Complementary Colors

This post is for Dave Anderson, who told me he looks forward to getting my blog postings and was eager to see the next one.  It's been a while because of illness, but I'm all better now!

J. S. Bach once committed himself to writing a prelude and a fugue in each of the 24 keys so each time he sat down to compose, he had a place to start.  So it is with my goal of painting in a different color combination: analogous, complementary, split complementary, triads, etc.  Here's one in just two complementary colors:  red and green.

What gives the painting depth are the overlaps: distant shore, middle ground cliffs, and foreground cliff. Since each overlapping plane is progressively lighter as you approach the far shore, the values help establish receding land masses.

Overlapping is a great way to achieve the feeling of depth.  It's also fairly easy to paint, too, because you start with the lightest area of the background, proceed to the next plane a little darker and with more intense color, and finally the darker foreground which sets off the middle ground by contrast.