THE presentation at the September 30 meeting of Newton St Cyres Art Group was entitled “Colour and Painting”, presented by Jane Green.

Jane has had a distinguished career in both art and architecture.

She began her very interesting presentation with the comment that painting is different/better than photography, because painting isn’t a question of producing a faithful copy.

When we decide to paint something in front of us, we emphasise some aspects of it and omit others, for a reason, and that’s why our use of colour is important.

She pointed out that the viewer’s brain rationalises what we paint, even if it isn’t realistic, and that we are free to choose whatever colours we want.

We were shown examples of “unrealistic” colours in paintings which our brains read and accepted.

Jane talked about colour mixing, with reference to the colour wheel, and about using a limited palette, which could be interpreted by omitting one of the primary colours red, yellow or blue. Matisse used a large number of colours, other artists restrict themselves to just two or three, which are carefully chosen.

She also talked about colour theory: the effect of juxtaposing certain colours; advancing and receding colours for foreground and distance; warm and cool colours; how the light at different times of day affects colours; and the proportions of different colours in a painting, all of which need to be considered when painting a picture, whether a still life, a portrait or a landscape.

When painting outside, it’s hard to avoid greens, so a striking contrasting red can bring the painting to life, even though the trees aren’t red.

Jane used slides of a wide variety of artists’ work to illustrate her presentation, including John Singer Sargent, Doris Hatt, Walter Sickert and Peter Doig.

The overall message was be brave, experiment, don’t copy slavishly or paint what you think people want to see!

Jenny Hallam