Seeing Like an Artist - Curtains of Atmosphere

I hope you have been noticing the temperature of GREENS this past week ( see the previous posting ).  Remember that cool color is one that has blue in its makeup and warm color has yellow or red in it. Having said that, distance can change color temperature.  All colors become cooler as they recede from the eye, except white.  I mentioned curtains of atmosphere, and promised to explain a bit more. 

Atmosphere has moisture that is like a mist, sometimes dense, sometimes light.  It is like a series of very thin films or "curtains" between the spectator and the distant horizon. Although atmosphere itself is apparently colorless, when it is seen in great depths it develops an opaquish blue hue.

 The more curtains of atmosphere, the cooler the color becomes. (Adding white to a color also cools it down.) Near objects are seen more sharply and the colors are richer and darker. The further away we look, details and color fades and get cooler.

When a realist artist paints landscapes she makes use of this fact to create distance on her flat canvas. 

But here is something you might not know...Even with still lifes ( objects, flowers, fruit) depth can be created by dulling colors and creating "curtains of atmosphere" on objects set up to paint, even if we are talking about objects sitting on a table. The artist finds the "star" of the painting and paints it in a way to make it stand out, while the other objects get treated differently.

In portraits where the head is turned  a bit, often the eye closest to the spectator is darker than the other, to  give the illusion of 3-dimensions ( volume). The shoulder closest to the viewer is richer in color, than the other which needs less clarity  to make it go back into the background.

So, if you practise staring off into the distance, notice this in nature. See how colors get fainter, bluer the farther you look! Now you´re seeing like an artist.