Temperature

Painting is all about differences. Big against small, dark against light, bright against dull. Temperature in a painting is no different - using warm against cool. Having a dominant temperature in your painting helps the viewer understand it, making it read faster and better. I see many paintings that are indecipherable as to which temperature is dominant. Most end up with a 50/50 split of warm and cool. Pick one! Predominantly warm or predominantly cool! Then throw in a bit of the opposite temperature and watch your colours sing.

In this Robert Genn painting "Jasper Lake" the temperature is predominantly cool with a warm sky and some luscious eye popper reds in the foreground. Following my aforementioned tip, the warm orange in the sky can be a bit larger because he has grayed the chroma down.