Monochromatic Paintings

St Peter's Basilica
by Jane McElvany Coonce

In my class this summer, we have been working on monochromatic paintings.  Generally, people think of monochromatic paintings as picking one color and adding either white or black. If you google "monochromatic paintings", you will see a lot of bad paintings that do just that.  It's boring to use one color!

To me, monochromatic paintings is when an artist limits his palette and keeps the colors analogous and then uses white or dark.  ( I don't use black - it's ugly and deadens a painting.)

It's not easy to do a monochromatic painting.  An artist who loves color has a hard time pulling in the reins.  But I did these 3 paintings and was quite happy with the results.

Rowers at Key Bridge
by Jane McElvany Coonce

Evening in Georgetown
by J.McElvany Coonce