I acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land where I work and live, the mumirimina of the Oyster Bay Nation, and the ongoing custodians of this land, the palawa people. I further pay my respects to Elders past and present. I celebrate the stories, culture and traditions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of all communities who also work and live on this land, a land of which is the source and inspiration of much of my work.
Charting Colour in The Gray Zone
Schoolhouse Gallery, Rosny Farm Arts Centre
Opening night 5:30pm Thursday 11th January 2024
Exhibition runs until 4th February,
11am – 5pm Wednesday to Sunday
Charting Colour in the Gray Zone is a window into a painter’s quest to understand colour. The focal point of this exhibition is a unique, bespoke colour-chart book started during the first COVID-19 lockdown. This ongoing labour of love – painting sequential tonal colour charts, is an exercise commonly loathed and misunderstood by art students, a task seldom revisited post-art school.
Little did I know, this rhythm of methodically charting colour would not only shift the way I paint and perceive landscape but also open another door of understanding – a nuanced conversation about those pigments that are often considered non-colour: black and white. Borrowing the loaded term, The Gray Zone, this exhibition is an invitation to visually re-consider the contested binary of black and white by celebrating the innumerable possibilities of charting colour
Colours in order of appearance ( note each pigment is appears in two charts, shifting from right top corner to the left in the subsequent chart).
The Process
Two colors mentioned below the chart are placed one opposite corners, one in the top left and one top far right corners straight out of the tube. From that the rest of the top row is mixed from left to right, a tiny bit of blue in the burnt orange, next square is a little more etc etc till you get to little bit of the burnt orange in blue on the second from the end, top row. Then from those seven top row of now individual colors mix they are all mixed with a tiny bit of white, this sequentially increases until you get to the lighter tones in the bottom row. Ideally in the central column I am looking for a new hue that’s doesn’t identify as blue, or orange. This only happens is the original hues are quite opposite each other when you think of the old colour wheel. It the original colours would be positioned be positioned close (next) to each other and new hue is impossible because the chemical makeup of the pigments are to similar.
The Pigments/Paint tubes names
Blue Ultramarine Light
Quinacidone Burnt Orange
Dioxazine Violet
Diarylide Yellow
Indigo
Perylene Crimson
Video Green
Brilliant green
Video Blue
Cadmium Orange
Sap Green
Cerulean Blue (Genuine)
Fanchon Red
Cobalt Yellow
Cobalt Blue Deep
Red Ochre
Chromium Oxide
Cobalt Violet Deep
Vermilion
Veronese Green
Cobalt Violet Light
Cadmium Lemon
Phthalo Blue
Dutch Brown (Transparent)
Phthalo Turquoise
Chinese Red
Cadmium Green Light
Egyptian Violet
Turquoise
Cadmium Red Light
Maganese Blue Hue
Phthalo Green
Neon Orange
Tasman Blue
Quinacridone Magenta
Olive Green
French Ultramarine
Burnt Sienna
Cobalt Teal Deep
Cadmium Red Deep
Cobalt Green Deep
Cerulean Blue Hue
Rose Madder (Quinacridone)
Vermilion (Hue)
Yellow Cinnabar Green
Permanent Blue
Raw Umber
Pyrrole Orange
Cerulean Blue Hue
Burnt Sienna
Cinnabar Green Deep
Cadmium Orange Hue
Prussian Blue
Cadmium Green Deep
Indian Yellow
Olive Green
Quinacidone Burnt Orange
Chrome Yellow Hue
Napthol Red
Prussian Blue
Cobalt Turquoise Green
Cadmium Yellow Deep
Ultramarine Blue
Quinacridone Magenta
Arylide Lemon
Phthalo Blue (Green Shade)
Caput Mortuum
Green Gold
Brillant Yellow
Red Oxide
Brilliant Blue
Brilliant Magenta
Brilliant Yellow
Paynes Gray
This was the very 1st chart I did in the book, so lots of room for improvement with my mixing and tonal shifts. Also after several charts I realised that because of the different oil qualities within each brand and pigments I needed to prime the paper of the book with GAC 100.
Please Note: I stuffed this one up, applying the Yellow in the top left corner when it should have been in the top right. the trouble is once you start you can’t change the order or you will contaminate the colour.
Please Note the clarity of the Caput Mortuum tonal shifts is duller and more chalky in appearance. This is because I tried a zink mixing white instead of titanium white. I was disappointed with the brilliance so I switched back to titanium in the central column. Very interesting discovery.
The Layout
The original book was a register all correspondence, these were designed as to be a records keeping system for all inward correspondence. According to the Victorian Archive Centre “As each letter was received by the Council, it was registered using the next available registration number in the Register. Information about each item of correspondence was recorded in the Register. This might include such details as the date of receipt of letter, from whom the letter was sent, a summary of the subject of the letter and how the letter was filed (the subject or classification).”
The first few pages of the book were and quite damaged so I used then experimentation with much trial and error. I original thought I would work with gouache (opaque water soluble paints) but being an oil painter at heart I found them to frustrating, especially as they were in hard blocks so much harder to mix and keep consistent in pigment intensity. So I abandoned that idea and went back to oils not knowing how they would respond to the paper. At first I thought the paper was think enough to cope, but with the slow drying process pending on the brand the linseed oil began to soak and spreed beyond the boundary of the grid. This problem only revealed itself a few week into the project. So to resolve the issue I started to prime the paper with a clear product Golden GAC100. It is very similar to PVA glue, dies clear and forms a protective shield between the support and oils paint.
As you can see in the photos, the initial these charts left an oil stain on the reverse side of the page. I no longer have this problem since using the GAC. Oil paints are notoriously slow to dry and in this project I am no adding any mediums apart from a touch of linseed oil to my oiler dryer pigments to assist in malleability. When the page is dry I am recording all the specifications of each pigment plus any notes or nuances I have found with that particular colour. Additionally I am recording that information in a spreadsheet so I can easily search and index similarities and differences. The categories are as follows
Chart number – this is the page number printed on the top right corner of the page, there are 302 pages in the book.
Paint name – as per the tube
Series number – this indicates the price and rarity of the pigment
C.I. Code – this is the Colour Index C.I. (Colour Index) Pigment # (number): These are the chemical composition number given that pigment by the Colour Index International. I have found this exceptionally helpful because many paint brands use different names for the same pigment.
Pigment – the name of the pigment or chemical.
Coverage - The opacity and transparency is only a general reference, where available, i have used the Colour index's designation or manufacturers literature to arrive at this figure. Many pigments exist in both transparent and opaque versions, or can be manipulated by the paint or pigment manufactures for a particular purpose. A general designation such as given will not always be the case in any particular formulation.
1 = Opaque, 2 = Semi-Opaque, 3 = Semi-Transparent, 4 = Transparent
Vehicle – this is the type of oil used to make this paint. Normally refined Linseed oil but for some pigments it is Sufflower oil as it does not yellow with age like linseed.
Brand - I have quite a divers collection of different oil brands, some have been given, some I have picked up overseas. I do have collection of Korean paints which are harder to classify as they do not use the same series table as English paints.
All this is very technical information but I have found this part of the project invaluable as a painting practitioner, allowing me to understand more deeply the alchemy of my craft.
