Muddy Paint

      I have fought an issue for years. Finally the light went on and I sought wisdom from Google.(I'm always bit slow to the obvious.) The problem - muddy colors.  Because many of my paintings consist of layers of many colors, often when the colors merge they become a muddy brown color. The issue is simple and the fix even more so. Anytime you mix colors that oppose each other on the color wheel, the result is the dreaded "Muddy Brown". For example Red + Green = Muddy Brown, so does Pink + Green = Muddy Brown. And all this time I thought purple smeared next to orange would be a vibrant contrast. Well it is, as long as they do not mix. 

     Oh, the colors can be painted next to each other, just not together. No doubt I should have looked into this earlier.  I just figured that it was due to the type of paint, or more likely, the artist. So next time I need to keep in mind using orange paint smeared with blue results in mud, as does yellow and purple.