The Colors of the Night

Perspectives from The Artist's Road

The clouds have broken and the nights are tolerable at last—just in time for our first nocturne oil painting tutorial of the season this evening. We firmly believe that more painters should try night painting because there are many learning benefits in the practice for an artist. For instance, darkness forces us to focus on the large masses first. That discipline helps us to see the daytime world with greater clarity. At night we learn to create simplified compositions which are strong in design instead of superfluous details, and that skill improves all of our paintings. We learn how to use and exploit a limited color and value palette to suggest spatial depth and form. All of the truly accomplished painters whose work we admire have these skills well in hand but it may have taken them years to master them. What an opportunity, then, is the nocturne! Like anything, it takes some trial and error to figure out the palette colors and the technical approach to night painting, so we deci…