More on Backgrounds
The April 2021 blog was also on the topic of backgrounds, but when this recent webinar video came out and emails started arriving, I was reminded that questions about backgrounds are among the most common ones I receive. My answers never feel quite adequate because much of what I'm doing seems like it's driven more by instinct, but no doubt experience and knowledge of color theory also comes into play. At any rate, in this blog you'll find some of my further attempts at describing my approach to backgrounds and some guidance as to choosing colors that will work well with the subject matter of the painting.
Backgrounds are a major element to a painting's success but something people are tempted to give little or no attention to. During the arrangement process I will already have chosen a background that will compliment the subject matter in the composition. I don't attempt to decide on or invent a background later. In a direct painting method, there will be indications of background established as I work the edges where the objects come up against it -- just putting down what I see immediately behind the object and not paying attention to the background as a whole. Once I have the center of interest established, I have a lot of information as to how I'll proceed with the rest of the painting. My next objective is to make all of the other areas interesting without having them compete with the story of the painting --- so, interesting, but without commanding equal attention. This can involve pushing colors/values in a subtle way or varying the paint application. Alternating transparent to opaque areas can also be really helpful. Once I've made most of the careful observations that will enable me make decisions quickly, the background usually is brushed in fairly spontaneously, taking cues from the brushwork and color notes established in the painting already. It's not easy to get into this mindset of letting go with the careful work that proceeded it, but being able to trust what I have on my canvas already is the key to making it work. Usually that spontaneity produces more than enough added interest and at that point I'll either leave it as is or stand back and carefully decide what areas to soften or play down. Occasionally though I will decide the painting needs something more to bring it together and end up adding some color or texture to the background.
I don't have set formula for choosing background colors but a relatively safe place to start would be to identify a strong color in the center of interest (for example-- red) and then choose for the background a more neutral version of that same color (like Terra Rosa, Mars Violet). Another option that generally works well is to choose the complement of that color which in the case of red/orange would be Viridian* or something close to it. Often but not always, my choices will be a muted version of the color so the background stays back and doesn't compete with the center of interest.
By way of illustration, I'll bring up a couple of pieces from this past summer. Although it might not be apparently to the casual viewer, in both of these paintings I've paired the complements of red/orange and blue/green. For the upright piece below I first established the intense chroma of the poppies up against the whites of the daisies and that helped me then to determine how far I could push the also chromatic mixtures of Viridian and Cobalt Blue in order to complement , but not overwhelm the center of interest. The most common mistake I see in student work is trying to go full strength chroma over the entire background, which not only spoils the depth and effect of the painting but makes softening edges a nightmare. In both of these paintings, the backgrounds overall are relatively neutral with the very chromatic areas limited to a few strokes.
In the smaller square painting above it's basically the same color format but the blue-greens in the background are lighter in value and quite a bit more neutral than in the other piece. Note that while both paintings do have areas of yellow, because the areas with intense yellow aren't very predominant, in a sense I'm overlooking them as being a part of the color scheme. Yellow and orange are sometimes referred to as the 'universal colors' because they are so ubiquitous. Wood, dirt, rocks, flesh tones, etc. ---much of what we observe in the natural world, if analyzed strictly in terms of color, will fall into this same neighborhood on the color wheel. It's almost impossible to come up with a composition that doesn't contain yellow or orange in some variation of value or chroma. Brown, beige, ivory, ochre, sienna ---all are part of the same color family. Because of that, unless there's a substantial percentage of very intense orange and/or yellow in the arrangement, I generally treat them with somewhat different rules than the rest of the color wheel.
Not every painting I do is based on a complementary color scheme but the combination I've used in these two paintings is probably the most classic one. In some paintings I find a triad works well and generally speaking colors adjacent on the color wheel to a predominant color will work well without disrupting the harmony. With all of the infinite variations of value and chroma, even sticking with one pair of complements can provide an amazing range of possibilities. Once you start becoming aware of it, complementary color schemes will start popping up everywhere. Classic architecture, paintings (especially figure paintings) -- even quite a few movies or TV shows, particularly ones depicting scenes from the past, will have this same red/orange and blue/green balance of color going on.
In summary, I suppose backgrounds are intimidating to a lot of us because they are a bit of a wild card and the possible colors to choose from are unlimited. It doesn't have to be just hunt and peck, trial and error though. The takeaway here is that color wheels aren't only helpful for color mixing. Every color you see has a place on the color wheel somewhere. Cool gray is a middle value, neutral blue and a color such as Mars Violet is actually a darker value neutral red. Once color is organized in your head in such a way, the task of choosing a background color can at least find some direction.
* I'm going by the Munsell color chart here, which is slightly different from some other color wheels.
"If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint', by all means paint and that voice will be silenced."
--- Vincent Van Gogh
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