The “Right” Green. A view from a Green aspirant Painter.

This was written in response to “The hunt for the right green” posted by Danielle a.k.a Beaulieud.  In the AT Members Blog.  4 years of painting as opposed to decades and a hobbyist of amateur status as opposed to full time professionals, the term Green can be safely applied to me.   Having had no training nor education in art I tapped sources like Instructional texts or books, Magazines,  DVDs and on-line sources.

Literally from day one I came face to face with : “ Always mix your greens…., it is better to mix……,  I have problems mixing greens….. and the like.  Living in a tropical country I am surrounded by greens year round and it does come in a myriad of shades, tints, hues, nuances and to the extent that naming them challenges the imagination.   Still, I did not really understand why and what there were these concerns particularly for “Green”.  Why not Red, or Yellow or Blue, or Violet, Orange etc.

Nature provides us with a lot of Green. Color wheel basics say its Blue mixed with Yellow.  Our eyes show it can differ as I said before.  Even a photograph will not show or record it “as seen” and although I believe in painting as realistically as possible, or desired, I have come to the conclusion that “the right green” will remain elusive.  Much like : the "Holy Grail”.

I am saying this in the context of technical artistic expression .  When the “available“ greens  like Viridian, Hooker’s Green or Phthalo Green for instance knocked me over the first time I tried them, I wondered why they were on the market at all.
Green thinking of a greenhorn.   Maybe that was the reason we are advised to mix our greens, so I went on.  Then, being curious or obstinate (even lazy) by nature I tried Sap Green, Olive Green, Green Gold, anything designated green (Recently I ran across a newly launched color by Daniel Smith : “Undersea Green”).

I liked some and I liked how some mixed on paper and came out a different green.    An “Aha” moment  (could have found it in many an article or book but then you’ve got to read and wade through other things that (at that time) did not really appeal to me or just did not “register”.).    So in fact, it was a “senior moment” 

Going back to “those” Greens again  I found they were very useful and versatile as a mixed-in color,  or being mixed in with others, depends how you look at or do it, giving me all sorts of colors.  Some of which I would not be able to mix again if my life depended on it    I know : make notes.  Ear’s don’t work too well when I paint and you can’t make notes while your brush is dancing all over the paper and you are chasing that bead down the paper.  ( By the way , an incline helps with washes, so I don’t paint flat)

Oddly, you can come across it again down the line.  And that in spite of differing paint manufacturers, brush (yes, it has to do with the waterholding capacity), paper and mood.
This in itself is an exciting moment on it’s own, with a delayed action, you only notice it when it has dried J.   There have been excruciating ones too though, fortunately fewer, when I go “Now what ailed me to touch that @#$*% color ?”   Of course it is the pigment’s fault. Never mine.   An attitude that was paid for in the local equivalent of greenbacks.   If you’ve read this far you may be somewhat green around the gills so I’ll conclude :  Give those greens a workout (then you can make notes LOL).

Jen (aka Jaka from AT)