Peuce Method
I have been reading an old turn of the century publication on techniques and materials concerning oil painting and have come to the conclusion that I have been somewhat wrong about my method. I have for some time been calling it the “Peuse” method having learned the technique from my mentor Bruce Corr, and that is what he called it. It is actually spelled Puce, and refers to an application of purple used as a underlying harmonizer for the painting. Kind of like having purple strewn all over the place to produce harmony. It is true that it, and other colour methods like it, sprang from the Impressisonist approach but that is where the old definition and mine end. I actually arrange and use colour according to the spectrum (as seen in a rainbow), while dismissing browns and black from my palette, much as the Impressionists did, but still seek and utalize form in a Tonal way–that is, looking for and painting halftones of light while creating the unique light effects with colour placed on the canvas next to one another. This is more of a Tonal-Impressionist approach than any method that utalizes a single colour as an underlying harmonizer! The use of purple is restricted to mixing darks, noting that as they drop in value they get cooler. Also, purple is used to create my earth colour and to modify the upper range. That is where my use of purple ends, and it in no way is used to embellish my forms with harmony. If that were so, I believe the paintings created would be overly cool and much too somber for my taste. The method I actually use works for me because I can apply it to any subject–landscape, portraiture, still-life…anything. It also reflects my personal predilection while working from life to paint the effects of light in a givin season and day. However, when I work in the studio from these studies my colour choices find themselves in line with the theories of Wassily Kandinski and his “perfect harmonies”. All this makes me believe that I must admit that my method is mostly unique, an outgrowth of the Impressionist school and requires a new title. Who knows what I’ll come up with, but I’ll no longer be calling it the “Peuse Method”. (Feb. 15, 2009)