Saturday, June 9, 2012

Favorite colors: five greens that I love

I love the color green. I use it in every painting and I use it generously in my life: the clothes I choose, my home decor and of course, my art.




I thought I'd compile a list of my top five favorite greens. The five most used and enjoyed by me greens. They live with me everyday.




1. gardening.

this pic is taken in my backyard of planted green beans, working hard at growing. gardening brings me contentment like nothing else.







2. sap green oil paint. Hands down my favorite hue of green.

not that sap green is some superior strain of pigment. No, it's more that it's a familiar friend. I come back to it time and time again as it's familiar and I like that about it. I know how it'll mix with others, I understand when it will be transparent and when I can count on it for cover. It's dependable. It's the potato of the paint world for me. This is a thumbnail image of a painting called "order from chaos" This painting started my long relationship with sap green.







3. Money. Duh.








4. my puccini painting.

no false modesty here. i love this painting of giacomo puccini. there is so much green in this painting, sap green, that when you get close, his skin is like a big fresco of layers upon layers of color and under it all and through out: green. the painting measures in at five feet high by four wide and hangs over my sofa.







5. Verdigris. From Wikipedia: The green patina that forms naturally on copper and bronze, sometimes called verdigris, usually consists of a mixture of chlorides, sulphides and carbonates (copper carbonate, copper chloride or copper sulphide). Atacamite is another name for the patina compounds. Verdigris can be produced on copper by the application of vinegar (acetic acid). Such a verdigris is water-soluble and will not last on the outside of a building like a "true" patina. It is usually used as pigment.
One example of a patina is a green surface texture created by slow chemical alteration of copper, producing a basic carbonate. It can form on pure copper objects as well as alloys which contain copper, such as bronze or brass.
Often, antique and well used firearms will develop a patina on the steel after the bluing, parkerizing, or other finish has worn. Firearms in this state are generally considered more valuable than ones that have been re-blued or parkerized. The patina protects the firearm from more damaging rust that would occur were the patina to be polished off.


The Statue of Liberty gets its green color from the natural patina formed on its copper surface.
A patina layer takes many years to develop under natural weathering. A copper roof will patinate faster than a copper facade, due to the longer dwell time of water on the surface. Buildings in coastal / marine locations will weather and develop a patina layer faster than ones in inland areas. For example, a new copper facade in central London will most likely not develop a "typical" green patina until after 50 years.
Facade cladding (copper cladding) with alloys of copper, e.g. brass or bronze, will weather differently than "pure" copper cladding. Even a lasting gold colour is possible with copper-alloy cladding, for example Colston Hall in Bristol, or the Novotel at Paddington Central, London.

wasn't that interesting?

So there you have it. There are loads more greens that I'm just as madly in love with, but for the purpose of right now, that's the list.

oh wait, I almost forgot.




I have another green love that I can't shake: this damn couch that I must one day have.

of course it's got dings and rips, the legs need replacing because they're so out of date, but it's just one of those pieces that I can't get out of my mind. It's at Ma(i)sonry in Yountville, coincidentally where I show and sell my art. The image was lifted from katydid who was up in Yountville for an event and captured the essence of this chesterfield. (Do chesterfield's have an essence?) don't answer that.