“Push-pull Theory” or “The Plasticity of Paint”

• This is from the very influential teacher Hans Hoffman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Hoffman).

• Color has dimension in the front-to-back direction. Due to the wavelength of red light (don’t ask me to explain further!) red shapes sometimes seem to float above the picture plane, and blue to recede behind.

• It is a paradox, but the more your colors adhere to each other on the picture plane as a “skin” the more you will be able to achieve the illusion of space in your painting (or flatness, if that is what you are going after).

• In other words, try for “no holes.” By controlling your painting in the front-to-back dimension, it becomes something you can model (plasticity) or ‘push’ and ‘pull’ to create the magical veil of illusion known as a painting.

• Here is a fun website that allows you to play with the push-pull concept: http://www.pbs.org/hanshofmann/push_and_pull_001.html