Today I worked with the pigment terra rosa again. I love this color and how smoothly it applies to the paper. It comes from M. Graham, a company which uses honey as one of the ingredients in its watercolors. Maybe that explains its texture.

When I plan a composition, I like to think about how I would use complimentary colors to accentuate contrasts between adjacent areas. Terra rosa is an earth tone, a reddish brown. What is the compliment of brown?  Since brown is composed of all three primary colors in various proportions, its opposite (or compliment) would also contain all the primaries. If I made my own brown, I could adjust the amounts of red, blue and yellow appropriately to form a color that would provide maximal contrast with my original mixture. However this is not the problem I address in the study below.

Today’s watercolor uses colors that harmonize with the reddish brown: yellows, bright red and other earth tones.

Abstract 110516
12″x16″ 140# Cold Pressed Watercolor Block

In addition to the harmony of color, the shapes also harmonize.There are open and closed figures, most are pear shaped. I can see a number of different faces in this composition depending on its orientation. I like ambiguity and the discoveries that come with meditation on the painting.