The Challenge Of Spring Greens

I love painting the fresh, bright greens of early springtime. With the first sniff of warmth in the air and a hint of green on the trees, I pack up my oils and favourite brushes from Rosemary’s Ivory Range and head to the woods to paint the bluebells. A couple of long filberts and a no.4 rigger are all I need for working on location.

In order to paint really fresh colours, choose a cool blue, such as Cerulean Blue and Lemon Yellow. Yes they make very bright, vibrant green initially but by adding just a tiny bit of complimentary red you can “naturalise” this towards a softer spring green.

Using this approach you control the colour and with practice will soon be mixing with confidence. For darker greens, I prefer Cobalt Blue as my base colour again with either Lemon or a warmer Yellow such as Azo Deep or Indian Yellow.

So now, rather than avoiding greens, load up your paint-box and set off to capture this lovely time of year.

See more of Melanie’s work at: www.melaniecambridge.com

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Melanie Cambridge Artist