Cliffs

Joseph Berges,
Cliffs at Etretat,
1919

Stanley Cursiter, Blue Day, Yesnaby, 50 x 60 cms

The cliffs in the distance are lighter in tone because the intervening atmosphere desaturates the tones of objects as they recede into the distance. Warm colours (lower frequency wavelengths of light) are lost first, therefore high frequency blue light is all that remains from the most distant objects. The area taken up by flat seawater is relatively small in these compositions. The cliffs have much more visual and psychological weight that a flat plane of water; if they occupy only one half of the composition, it can look unbalanced.

Stanley Cursiter - British

Orkney Cliffs

Stanley Cursiter - British

In the Orkneys, Westray





Cliffs, Orkney

Waves Breaking on Cliffs, Orkney, 34 x 40 inches

Stanley Cursiter - Orkney Islander

These appear to be two different versions of the same scene.

The purple in the foam is cool enough to indicate shadow and volume, but warm enough to contribute to the summery brightness and warmth of the painting.

In Nature, shadows are almost always coloured by light reflected from other things. Very few things are pure black or grey. Even if shadows in waves seem to be grey, it's best not to mix the grey from tube black and white. A grey mixed from two complementary colours - e.g. purple and yellow - is more alive and interesting.