I prefer and muted colors lately. I don’t know why I began with the most saturated of saturated colors today. Before I applied the earthy terra rosa, my favorite part of all the colorful arched streaks, was the watery interaction between the purple and yellow pigments. Since purple and yellow are complementary colors, their combination yields a brownish color.

I could not let the exuberant rainbow effect of this composition stand. I filled in the white spaces around the colors with terra rosa, a rose-brown color.

Tyranny of Saturated Colors
12″x9″ 140# Cold Pressed Watercolor Block

I think I was succeeded in reducing the cheeriness of the unadulterated colors by applying the brown background.

Cheerfulness has its place, but not in this day and age.