In this piece, I loved how the angles from the three roofs worked together with the sunlight to create a compelling design for this rather ordinary neighborhood scene in Carmel, IN.
Plein air painter and fourth-generation artist Jed Dorsey shares his tips for getting brilliant color into your next landscape painting. Join us for the inaugural Acrylic Live virtual art conference and learn from some of the top acrylic artists and faculty from around the world. Acrylic Live is March 26-28, 2025, with an optional Essential Techniques Day on March 25. Register now at AcrylicLive.com!
On Painting a Colorful Plein Air Landscape
By Jed Dorsey
I went to a wooded park with my wife and daughter and found this beautiful spot on the trail to stop and paint “We Walked Here” (above).
My “Untitled Nocturne” above is a painting of Jason Bailey from “First Brush of Spring” in New Harmony, IN in 2024. Traditionally during this event, after a full day of painting and a late dinner, a group of painters often heads to the back alley behind the Yellow Tavern to paint. I loved how the overhead street light illuminated the scene.
7 Tips for Painting Vibrant Color
- Call your painting a study. When you think of what you’re working on as a study instead of a painting, it can encourage a sense of freedom. You’re not trying to create a masterpiece; you’re just trying to learn.
- Use a brightly toned canvas. This can be the easiest way to make your paintings sparkle, because it doesn’t necessarily require a change in the way you work. Simply let some of the underpainting shine through.
- Exaggerate the subtleties. Look closely at the scene. Is there a blue violet from the sky reflected in the ground shadows? Is there a colorful tree, house, or boat? Find the colors that are already there and exaggerate them a little.
- Keep the value; change the hue. In my opinion, a color’s inherent value is its most important attribute. This means you can experiment and change the hue and saturation of colors quite a bit as long as you keep the values correct.
- Add variety to each color. A painting that only has fully saturated colors can be overwhelming. Placing dull, grayed-down colors next to the cleaner, more saturated colors also creates variety and makes the saturated areas appear more colorful.
- Use gray to give the eye a place to rest. Making a portion of the painting (the sky, for instance) a simple neutral grayish color provides a resting place for the viewer’s eye and can help bring a sense of peace to the scene.
- Let color have its voice. Georgia O’Keeffe said, “I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way — things I had no words for.” What do you feel when you see a scene you love? What do you want to say about it? How can you use color to say what words can’t?
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Blog post prepared for the web by Cherie Dawn Haas, Editor of Plein Air Today
Very helpful tips, Jed. Just what I needed to hear. Thank you!
I find your paintings all that and more.