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“Everything that you can see in the world around you presents itself to your eyes only as an arrangement of patches of different colors.” - John Ruskin
Yes, colors matter for every soul. It unlocks a mystery chest of emotions for us. Can you imagine a world as drab and dreary, devoid of colors? Nope. We think in bits of colors: we are pampered, stirred, and moved by every speck of it. Things that appear in our eyes are nothing but shafts of colors arranged in varied shapes and forms. Most of the time we are caught between the twilight zone of warm and cool hues, a spectrum of lightness that is used in paintings and designs to provoke certain kinds of feeling.
If you go through these few lines, you can understand what exactly goes in the mind of Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky, the famous Russian abstract artist, painter, and theorist. He was a painter with a rare insight who could hear colors, and see music in them.
“Now disappearing slowly in green grass. Now sticking in gray muck. Now disappearing slowly in white snow. Now sticking in gray muck. Lay long: big long black reeds.”
- Kandinsky, from his collections of poetries ‘Sounds’
Most of us know what warm colors are and how they make the lifeless canvas look sprightly and animated in a trice! The greatest creations in art and design have used the warm color palette for ages with the hearty combination of red, yellow, orange, and pink, drawing inspirations from heat, fire, sun, blood, etc. The warmth and intimacy of these colors is best captured in multi-colored bell peppers, pumpkins, sunny & sizzling yellow sunflowers, or the warm autumn color palette of orangish and tawny shaded leaves creating a sense of excitement with the approaching fall.
“I have always wanted my colors to sing.” Paul Delvaux
Vincent Van Gogh: His Famous Paintings with Warm Colors
Vincent Van Gogh, the great impressionist artist rampantly used the colors yellow ochre, cadmium yellow, chrome yellow and vermilion to create warm yet complex tonal shades in his images of landscapes. The warm and golden aura surrounding the paintings show how desperately he was looking for peace and solitude while nobody cared for his frenzied creations and his madness for colors.
For the night scenes he preferred the color Prussian blue to add more depth to the portraits. The two artists Van Gogh and Paul Gaugin, the long-standing friends, shared their affinity to warm hues as they would discuss the compositions and color perspectives during their stay in Arles.
“Oh yes! He loved yellow, did good Vincent… When the two of us were together in Arles, both of us insane, and constantly at war over beautiful colors, I adored red; where could I find a perfect vermilion?”
- Paul Gauguin
Yes, yellow was his obsession that titillated Vincent and he used it purposefully to paint his dreams and impulses. Other than yellow, the color palette of Van Gogh was inspiring and full of bright and bold hues, mostly used as synthetic pigments.
“There is no blue without yellow and orange...”
- Vincent Van Gogh
He used the intensely bright cadmium yellow pigment in his legendary creation “Sunflowers.” The bright lemonish tint, chrome yellow, was another favourite tone for his artworks.
Vincent Van Gogh, like his friend Paul Gauguin, adored the color vermillion, the fiery red color found as pigments in Roman fresco paintings in Pompeii and Herculaneum long back. The density of the paint gave a new dimension to his impasto technique of painting, a form of embossed painting, leaving the brush marks on the canvas as thick layers of paint, dried to give a three-dimensional effect.
He was greatly inspired by painters like Eugene Delacroix for his dramatic use of color contrasts. Likewise, he used contrasts of yellow and midnight blue in another remarkable artwork “Café Night at Terrace,” to define two vivid spaces. The use of warm and bright yellow, vermilion and orange for the cozy café setup is complemented by the neutral blue and shadowy backdrop of the night scene with dark silhouettes of the buildings. This creates a sort of contrast of warm and cool hues lending more depth and credibility to the landscape.
Art Style of Henri Matisse: The Painter Who Revolutionized Color
Henri Matisse, the undisputed French master painter & sculptor of the Fauvism art era, played with diverse color schemes, treating them more than just static entities, giving motion to his figurative drawings, liberating, and revolutionizing the colour palette. Bright colors dominated his works, giving the concrete forms the much-needed acceleration and vitality. After he was diagnosed with cancer, he experimented with colored cut-outs that he could later paste on the canvas. Later, the cutouts were used to make large panels of artwork and murals.
Dance (1910), a significant modern artwork by Henri Matisse, was created as requested by Sergei Shchukin, a Russian art collector and businessman who donated this enormous ornamental panel of artwork to the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The painting has the dancing nudes as joyful, happy figures surrounding the canvas, in rhythmic patterns. The warm colors that dominate the canvas are vermilion with blue and sea green. It is a pleasure to watch the colorful figures so engrossed in the steps while in a circular motion, as repetitive as they can be, often compared to Igor Stravinsky’s ballet and orchestral concert, ‘The Rite of Spring.’
“If you see a tree as blue, then make it blue.” Paul Gauguin
The Contemporary Color Schemes of Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol:
The pop art movement of the later twentieth century gave the color frenzy a boost with the use of flat primary colors used as color blocks, mostly comprised of black, yellow, red, and blue. Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol have created a mass color impact on the consumerist society, borrowing the pointillism style and minimalistic yet impactful color selection from the comic characters. The use of acrylic colors started around this time, giving the Pop Art Movement its required color punch. The dotted style and the flat warm colors were devised to attract the consumers’ attention, often criticized by the conventional art fraternity.
Famous Warm Color Paintings of the Gen X Painter: Eric Hanson
The works of Eric Hanson, the young American artist & painter, almost nabs the instant attention of the viewers with her style of Open Impressionism, flurry of warm colors, showcasing a lot of gaiety and energy. Her celebrated paintings of picturesque landscapes are showcased in international exhibitions and art museums worldwide.
Erin started with rock-climbing before she started painting. And, that’s how she experimented with the red rocky landscapes of the Nevada desert, in warm cadmium red and orange hues, creating almost 50 paintings in the first few years of her stay in Las Vegas.
She prefers colors like -
- blazing oranges, that brings warmth and liveliness,
- the color bright yellow, that is associated with the bright aura of sun,
- reds like burnt sienna found in national parks,
- majestic purple for the sky and horizon,
- brown with an earthy tone, that is used often in her nature paintings.
Erin uses thick brushstrokes like Van Gogh, and is drawn to natural beauty, visiting places of rare flora and fauna, secluded spots on earth. Let’s dig in some of her nature paintings with warm colors and contrasts.
Aspen Forest
In this vibrant forest painting, Erin uses the impasto technique of Van Gogh with thick strokes of oil color on canvas that showcases the beauty of the forest in Aspen, and the enchanting pine trees there. The path is a suggestive one, the narrow gateway to explore the autumnal beauty and the grace of the season, amidst the solitude and autumn-colored leaves of the trees in Aspen. The portrayal is suggestive of the warm autumn color palette.
Dawning Lupin
The picture unfolds the beauty and the vast expanse of the coastal hills and meadows of the Californian region of Big Sur. A mind-blowing mixture of purple and yellow have created a warm spring color palette that captivates the viewer’s attention to the endlessness and the coming of the spring, as if someone is invited to stand in this field of colors and enjoy the morning beauty.
Warm Colors Dominate Our Art, Life & Lifestyle Accessories
If you would like to make your home a warm and cozy place you will definitely want to add some vibrancy to the wall and décor of the rooms. You can have a painting on the wall that is bright & warm and pulls away from the dreary look of the surroundings. Have warm colored pillows, and flowering plants indoors, and you’ll feel the magic of the color contrasts that work perfectly for the interiors of a home. The presence of the colors yellow, orange, pink or burgundy (red-purple) make the spaces more inviting and appealing. You can even have your colorful furniture placed against a cool and neutral backdrop.
This way, artists go on creating a fine balance between coolness and warmth, while the bright colors complement the subdued tone of backdrops. Knowing these subtle differences can help painters to experiment with their palettes to make your canvas glow with the electric colors of sunset or the mellow warmth of an autumn morning. So, get your sketchbook & warm color palette ready to paint the next big thing!
If you are color-crazy like Van Gogh or Erin and would like to see the fiery emotions gushing out in a frenzy, there are some pro-tips to share with you –
Warm colors go well with neutrals, which help the warm tones look brighter & candid without disturbing the eyes of the viewers.
Then, set your feelings free and loose till they come and settle on the canvas and you start with the sunny strokes, painting fairytales.
Happy painting!
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