Painting 1; Part 1; Research – painters using colour and pattern

Peter Doig

Example:

“The Architect’s Home in the Ravine”

1991

Oil on canvas

200 x 275cm

Seen on http://www.saatchigallery.com

• Uses pairs of complementary colours a lot (as here, blue and orange)
• Interesting composition with the vertical foreground trees, and then the buildings at angles behind pulling you through into the dark woods in the background
• The lattice of little branches might at first appear a barrier to a viewer, but actually it pulls you in to try and work out what’s behind – very clever

Edouard Vuillard

Example:

“Sunlit Interior”

1921

Distemper on paper mounted on canvas

32.75 x 25 in

Tate, London; Image released under Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND (3.0 Unported)

• Pastel, sunny colours – either because of the medium used – or more likely the medium was deliberately selected to create this effect
• Also uses juxtaposition of complementary colours; red/green, orange/blue – these add a bit of “zing” to what might otherwise be too sugary a scene
• He really loved his pattern details – we went to an exhibition of paintings relating to his mother a couple of years ago at the Barber Institute, where his depiction of interiors with all their patterned wallpaper, carpet, china etc was striking

Tal R

Example:

“New Quarter”

2003

Mixed media on canvas

250 x 250 cm

Seen on www.saatchigallery.com

• Blocks of strong colours, lot of primary and secondary colours, black and white
• Strong directional composition: horizontals and verticals top and bottom with diagonal element centrally
• Lots of patterned sections in the clothes and the buildings – stripes, grids, blobs – even in the grass!

Daniel Richter

Example:

“Trevelfast”

2004

Oil on canvas

283 x 232 cm

Seen on www.saatchigallery.com

• Strong contrasts between black elements and the fiery reds, oranges and yellows, which also then contrast with the icy whites and blues at the bottom
• Unusual cross-shaped composition, with the vertical central tree and the horizontal central galloping figure – my eye is constantly drawn to the point where they meet
• Really big painting!