Materials and Methods

This was an exercise from a Maitland Graves colour and design book to paint up a page that shows the effect of the differing surrounding colour or tone on the colour in the centre that is exactly the same mix.

This matrix is from an early colour and design session and shows the result of mixing these six main colours with each other to get these 15 secondary colours. It guess it would have been interesting to do the next level using the 15 results from this one to get another whole group of more tertiary colours.

I was looking at an old Colour and Design work-book of mine from the mid ’80s and found this page on Tonal Scale and Value Keys. Still good theory and not a bad little painting exercise with gouache. I think it may have come from a Maitland Graves colour and design book. A couple of the hand-written notes read: Major because it has both ends of the scale involved, Minor because it has one end of the scale involved.

Here’s a quick guide to some oil painting principles – basic stuff that most painters have internalised but it can be good to go back to the basics if you get stuck… Lean to Fat Using paint mixed with a ‘lean’ oil painting medium over the top of a ‘fat’ layer can cause the paint…

This colour wheel is based on the Albert Munsell Colour System that has 100 steps, with the primary colours being Red, Yellow, Green, Blue and Purple. It was an early Colour and Design exercise to mix every step from those base colours.

I’ve got the dance floor from Strictly Ballroom up on eBay for sale. The floor used to be installed in my studio years ago but it’s been in storage for years and I think it’s about time someone else had a go…

I had a great floor in my art studio for a while. After working on Baz Luhrmann’s 1992 film Strictly Ballroom, I inherited the dance floor from the film set. I rented a truck, carted it from the film sound stage and re-laid it in my art studio (with a little help from my friends).