We live in a hue-based society. Most artists have an unhealthy addiction to hue. Our obsession with color, specifically the hue of a color, undermines our ability to see form objectively. The Power of Positive Painting, my 157 page full color book, is an an effort to compensate and correct this problem. The book and the video are about finding true color freedom.

People ask me how I was able to write four books, and paint so much, etc. The answer is simple: necessity is the mother of invention. I wrote The Power of Positive Painting out of a need to help people express reality in their paintings, namely how to paint in 3-D. It’s not hard once you know how.

When we refer to a color we are usually talking about its hue. “There’s a red fire truck!”  “The sky is so blue today.” We use hue to survive in childhood. We learn to stop at a red light and go when it is green. When we get a little older, we refer to a “Mauve” blouse or a “Hot Pink” dress.

At some point in the process, as artists, we must let go of this preconditioned emotional response to hue and concentrate more on value. Once we do, we will have more freedom when it comes to playing with hue, not less. The fact is, hue has nothing whatever to do with form. You can create form using black and white or blue and white, etc. Hue is the icing on the cake, not the cake itself. Therefore, it behooves us to train ourselves to focus more on the variations in a value.

The ultimate optical illusion is to create the illusion of 3-D objects on a 2-D surface. Want to learn the single most important trick to doing just that? Want your paintings to look like they could magically come to life? Find out how and get a free gift for your trouble

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