Color Theory

1 Pages 239 Words

The Color of the West
In the Cowboy Artist Museum in Kerrville, Texas, artist Bob Pummil has a series entitled, “Under the Western Skies,” being displayed in the main showroom. Pummil, a great landscape artist, uses the historic western civilization movement to provide the subject material in his pieces for the series.
In the 1985 eighteen by twenty-four oil painting, “Sound of the Bell,” Pummil makes use of different color combinations. The subject matter is a hilly, mountainous landscape with a cowboy driving a herd of cattle. In the foreground Pummil focuses on a single cow with a yellow bell around its neck.
The uses of color in this painting are cool and complimentary. Much of the landscape are various shades of blues and greens to depict the sky, hills, and grass. The cattle are varying shades of white and brownish tints. One thing that stands out and grabs the eye is the rich, warm yellow bell around the cow’s neck and the long yellow raincoat of the cowboy. The yellow stands out so much because the majority of the landscape consists of the complete opposite color.
Also, an effect of reverse contrast can be see. Usually, the foreground is painted lighter and the background is painting darker to give the effect of distance. But here it is reversed. The mist of the hills and distant objects are tinted more white, while the closer objects are deeper, more saturated colors....