You and I have become accustomed to the meaning of particular colors. Our reflexive sense of color-meaning is particular to our culture. For me blue is cold, aerial, wet and seasonally associated with winter. Blue’s association with the cosmos goes back to ancient Greco-Roman traditions with their 4 basic colors corresponding to 4 elements. Red is for fire, hot, demonic, and seasonally associated with our autumn. Even the atmosphere itself partakes of colors’ meanings. Leonardo Da Vinci’s color theory placed pale blue in the distance of a landscape. Our troposphere (that’s the atmospheric layer we live in) contains water molecules which scatter blue light because of their molecular interference with the wave length of blue. The sky is blue because it has lots of troposphere compiling blue effects over distance.
Consider these examples and the seasonal temperature their colors suggest. In example 1, this summer image is principally blue-green which could be considered cool were it not for the suggestion of foliage which thwarts the suggestion of winter.
example 1. Summer, Vertical Light, oil. 
Examples 2 and 3 both have substantial areas of yellow with references to either orange or red. This palette pushes an autumnal reading. While no fully described leaves or trees are present, they are vaguely suggested with blurred vertical forms. Color does the work of implying a season and temperature. The blurred paint forces us to guess, to project an idea of time and place into the image. Example 4 is more conflicted. Here the painting offers a sense of green, blue and lavender with a few red and orange notes. The calendar possibilities are more flexible. There is more ambiguity. Even its title, “Water Harmony” leaves space for the viewer’s imagination unlike the title “Saugatuck Autumn”. In all three examples the uncertainty of obscuring atmosphere helps encourage guessing about time and place.
example 2. Saugatuck Autumn, oil.
example 3. Solar Flare, oil.
example 4. Water Harmony, oil.
I begin a step-by-step demonstration ( examples 5 through 10) by taking an older figurative, warm red/brown painting. I Flip it over and start to cover it with ultramarine blue. I will let the hotter palette live under the blue over-painting (example 5). Example 6 and its subsequent development into example 7 shows you my initial photo work. It is a composite of two photos layered and then horizontally squeezed together. Squeezing the image heightens the vertical effect of the painting and enhances ambiguity.
example 5. blue underpainting begins over older image. 
example 6. original photo.
example 7. layered and squeezed photo.
The process now begins to build on the uncertainty expressed in the last photo. I pushed the photo into the kingdom of blue and let my paint follow that lead. As you see, I am not copying the photo. I am just using its design as platform for further experimentation. Examples 8, 9, 10 reveal how the image developed. In example 10 I introduce a semi-opaque glaze and, I have pushed the confusion of the forward vehicle into the distance. The semi-opaque glaze in the center adds more light to the image and further clouds the legibility of the image. This added uncertainty encourages more guesswork on the part of the viewer.
example 8. step 2 of painting.
example 9. step 3 of painting.
example 10. step 4 of the painting with added atmosphere.
Patricia Scanlan
I love the atmosphere here. It is very instructive to be reminded what color can convey
. The first example is magnificent.
Fredric Neuwirth
Photo example #7: the squeezed and layered photograph is in itself a very effective image.
Example #9: What is interesting is the opening up of the painting on the sides to let light in. The contrast to the underside of the roadway heightens the light. It is in reverse where you think the sides should be dark but the dark is gained from the underside.
Example #10 adds atmosphere and depth & ambiguity by the light blur. It is good!
Kay Halcrow
Very beautiful paintings especially the last. The technique of squeezing the photo which you have mentioned before is really intriguing. Atmospheric rendition gives the viewer so much to brood over – so effective. The color is also really good. Thinking about blue brought to mind an article on blue color, and atmosphere which apparently was not there in the ancient world: <a href:="The wine dark sea: color and perception in the ancient world" http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/hoffman_01_13/
david dunlop
Hi Kay, Thanks for your comment on the blue and the Homer reference. I read your referenced article. Much misunderstanding of the Greeks use and definitions of color has and continues to occur. Blue is a great example. It begins with Pliny the Elder’s mistranslation or omission in his natural history which he wrote in the 1st century AD when he says the Greeks do not use blue. I will address Pliny’s error and its rippling historical consequences along with the “Wine dark sea” description in a future blog. This misunderstanding has continued today as reported in a recent report on NPR. I plan to try to set the record straight soon. For now let me say the Greeks saw and used varieties of Blue.( the hisorical evidence is abundant)..they just named them differently. Best, David
Kay Halcrow
Will be very interested in results of your research. Puzzled mse since blue (green) gem stones so important in pArts of the world – but we’re the sea and sky perceived as blue ?
Kay Halcrow
Interesting beautiful results, and use of atmosphere! Discussion of color meaning reminded me of an article on color perception in ancient world (no blue!!!) at http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/hoffman_01_13/
Richard Rodamar
David :
Taught at Silvermine back in 2003-05 .Love your work then as I do now but there seems to be a highten sense of color theory now in your work.
May I ask who you like the most in that area and perhaps why ?
Have a great day.
PS
LOVED the work that you showed at Watershed gallery.
Truly
Rick
david dunlop
Hi Richard Rodamar. In reply to your question about who I like most in the area of color my answer is with respect to different epochs. The limited palette of Chinese Song Dynasty painters are so subtly harmonized, the limited chiaroscuro palette of Rembrandt evokes so much warm light with so little blue contrast ( he makes black blended with white appear blue), the chrome yellow of Turner has so much luminosity against his violets, and then there’s Bonnard who’s time in history gives him access to more color and he uses it like no other but, without Monet there would have been no Bonnard and without Bonnard there would have been no Thiebaud and without Matisse there would have been Diebenkorn. All of them Colorists of great power and influence on me.
Gayle Alstrom
I just finished watching your painting show on Create (channel 169-NY) about Vincent VanGogh. I just loved it and can’t wait to see more shows.