Texture, Depth, and Color

I admit that I struggle to remember all the rules of color but lately I’ve had some success with complementary colors.

In this painting I underpainted with red giving the painting a nice depth of color.  Red would tend to give the feeling of distance. Green and Red are complementary colors; therefore, the reddish barn stands out nicely among all the various greens.  The color of the lightest trees in the background also places those trees in the distance.  The open fields in the background draws the viewer right into the painting.

As an artist, I am almost always more critical of my own work.  This canvas is a repaint meaning I did not like a painting so I gessoed over it and painted this. 

I have mixed feelings about repainting.  I’ve tried sanding once but that is quite a mess.  Without sanding there is often a lot of texture from the first painting and a layer of gesso.  You can easily see that texture in this painting and in this case I find the texture appealing.  It’s a personal choice.