High Key, Low Key, Neutrals.....playing with values and palettes
Saturday, January 31, 2026
Hello Artsy Folks
I visited San Francisco Legion of Honor this week to visit the inspiring (Edouard) Manet and (Berthe) Morisot exhibit. What amazed me observing a few glorious rooms full of their work, it was so evident that these two artists painted their works with very contrasting approaches to value. Whether intentional or not I haven't a clue.
Manet used the full value scale masterfully, so many deep darks to express his subject material. Whereas Morisot, to my amazement worked from mid to high value tones. Just stunning. Her work felt so feminine, soft, energetic, immediate.....her strokes confident and seemingly quickly done. Her work was fresh, and underdone vis a vis Manet's which, still absolutely masterful, but truly more masculine, with distinct lines between subject and background, values doing much of the work, and much less abstraction overall. My impressions was that he worked perhaps more thoughtfully, deliberately compared to Morisot's energetic fresh bursts of inspiration. Once again, my personal and very subjective view.
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| Morisot and Manet |
I am no art historian, nor an art critic, just someone who's been painting years and I see what I see. I could easily be contradicted by anyone. But those were my observations. I purchased two postcards in the gift shop (Oh, mon dieu, what restraint!) and they illustrate perfectly what I observed in the show. Obviously I was looking thru the Value aperture since that's what we are studying in class currently.
So here are a few of my unfinished value paintings......these will shift and change by the end of the month. For now our assignment was to create a high key painting, low key, and coming up is a neutral painting. We are to leave them unfinished, and set them aside to "rest". At month's end we will have one of each of these paintings at our desks or easels to adjust, and add the final touches to make them sing. Stay tuned.
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| gouache on watercolor paper, landscape, low key, unfinished |
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| acrylic on wood, Burmese puppet, high key, unfinished |
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| acrylic on collaged cardboard high key, unfinished |
That's it for now.....care to join us? Never too late...i have a few openings in my Zoom classes currently.
Ready to join us?
There's plenty of creativity, inspiration and fun to go around.
→ MORE INFO on my classes here.
If you wish to join us for a month or more of classes,
GET IN TOUCH and see if you don't get inspired, too! 🎨
Blessings, Joanie