Looking at nature....

"About form and roundness, Hawthorne said, 'Let color make form; do not make form and color it in.' This is the main difference between looking at nature from a linear point of view as opposed to observing masses."

---Lois Griffel, writing of painter Charles Hawthorne in her book Painting the Impressionist Landscape: Lessons in Interpreting Light & Color

Color and Light

"Local color is the actual color of an object, uninfluenced by reflected light or color. At an early age, we were rewarded for coloring trees green & the sky blue, making it easy for us to believe in those judgements. As we become aware of the infinite variety of nature, we struggle to unlearn our color 'stereotypes' and open our eyes to color. If we could be open-minded about color names & simply react to light as it affects an object's color, we would begin to see! We must understand that local color does not express light or atmosphere; that in our painting we attempt to express the way that sunlight affects local color."
--Lois Griffel
Painting the Impressionist Landscape: Lessons in Interpreting Light and Color