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How the rhythm of purple and yellow balance energy.

Autumn Splendor 30″ x 30″ isn’t a mere juxtaposition of purple and yellow. It’s an exploration of color complexity. Some people respond to value. Some people respond to color. And some people respond to the brightness of a color (chroma). Autumn Splendor 30″ x 30″ is a fusion of all these various components.

Autumn Splendor: The Magic of Color and Composition

In Brad Teare’s Autumn Splendor, the purple hues stand in stark contrast to the yellows of the field. There are purple tones in the tree trunks and patches of purple in the grass. Further in the distance, the mountain rises and deciduous trees appear, their purple hue becoming darker. A purple band in the back becomes a steeply rising slope.

Teare understands that our eyes are naturally drawn to contrasts, and they wander from the darkest to the lightest parts of a painting. In Autumn Splendor, the orange hue is a bit grayer and has some purple mixed in, while the top section is bright yellow. This transition leads the viewer’s eye from top to bottom. Although Teare rarely uses a high chroma yellow with purple, he loves the effect.

Teare’s fascination with color field effects is evident in Autumn Splendor. When a purple field is placed next to a yellow field, they project the opposite color onto each other. The purple is cast optically onto the yellow, and yellow is projected onto the purple, amplifying the colors. This illusion is called a field effect, and Teare often uses it in his artistic project.

Part of the magic of Autumn Splendor lies in the way the painting’s zigzag rhythm draws the viewer’s eye on a journey through the scene. A musical composition is a combination of harmonious parts, much like the combination of color, line, shape, and pattern in a painting. As the eye flows through the painting in a sweeping fashion, the linear composition adds energy that amplifies the energy of the color scheme. Teare speculates that this satisfying visual journey releases dopamine, similar to the satisfaction of completing a puzzle.

Teare’s attention to detail is crucial in Autumn Splendor, particularly in the trees. In this painting, the trees in the front are Aspen, which turns stunning colors at different times than Poplars, gives maximum contrast. The rhythm of the branches and the repetition of the trunks in the band of Aspen at the bottom produces a visual syncopation that would not exist otherwise. Too much detail would create an eye trap, stopping the visual journey. The trunks on the distant arc of trees are barely visible, giving just a dash of motion within the shape.

Teare likes to create energy in his paintings. He describes it as a synesthesia of the senses, creating a rhythm and harmony that is pleasing to the eye. In Autumn Splendor, the visual journey has variable speeds, and the viewer’s eye slows and accelerates, adding to the pleasure of the viewing experience.