Nov 1
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.
November is dedicated to coming to grips with the color brown. I know that many things that I love are the color brown, but I keep thinking of them as some other color. Foxes and this horse are not brown, they are red. Leaves turn colors, like red and orange and yellow unless they simply aren’t trying. Tree bark is gray. Labrador retrievers are supposed to be black, even though the creamy ones are beautiful.
Chocolate is brown but I think I’m going to put that off for a week because I just ate so many too many M&Ms that I can’t face the chocolate concept. Coffee is brown, and tea is frequently brown unless we are exploring the newer special issues. Brownies are (almost by definition) brown. Most horses are some form of brown, as are their eyes, a gorgeous purply brown that defies description. Horse chestnuts, regular eating chestnuts, figs and many pears are all brown. See, I am slowly talking myself into parts of brown.
My biggest issue at the moment is entirely mental. I can’t think of a color complement to brown. The color across from it in the color wheel that makes it pop and sing. Blue has orange. Pink and red have green and vice versa. Purple has yellow. Black and white complement each other. Brown is in the middle of the color wheel, brooding. It is what happens when you mix colors you didn’t quite mean to, when you rinse your brush when using water colors. Blicky, slightly slimy, mud colored brown. This is what I have to get past.
Lee Thomson 
I have the SAME problem, except that I haven’t yet eaten enough chocolate. But give me time! Great post.
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The French Broad River and and the soil in the back field at Herndon Terace where the daffodils grow. Is terra cotta brown? Oh Kudzu! Almost as good as a clean swear as oh baggywrinkle! Love to my silent daughter.
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I love brown! Have you tried aqua? or slatey blue-grey? It depends on the brown of course but generally the not-quite-blues work for me. And thank you for your lovely comments on my photos over on Flickr!
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DRWHO is on the right track. I also like blue to go with brown. It is also possible to use small ammounts of two complimentary colours with it, or three colours such as the three primaries, the three secondary colours, or any three colours with equal distances on the colour weel. Thanks for the interesting discussion topic, you made me think. I think brown looks harmonious together with almost any colour, the difficult part is to make it look interesting.
I just posted an unfinished piece in my blog that has brown in it, and light blue, and muted versions of yellow, blue and red. I’m sorry for shamelessly promoting my own blog here, but you might want to have a look: http://tenar72.wordpress.com/
I guess I’ll be going back to paint and paper now and do a few brown compositions.
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Here is the permalink to that post: http://tenar72.wordpress.com/2007/11/03/arts-and-crafts-market-find/
Sorry!
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