Understanding the Color Wheel

Formerly with Owensboro Health Medical Group, Peter Gregor, MD, continues to function as a Kentucky cardiologist. Beyond dispatching his duties as a cardiologist, Peter Gregor, MD, enjoys painting and has experience using watercolors, water-soluble oils, and acrylic paints.

A basic color wheel has 12 colors that show artists and designers which colors work well together. The first three colors on every color wheel are the primary colors: red, yellow, and blue. These colors, when mixed together, can create every other color found on the wheel. They are considered to be the wheel’s most powerful colors.

Between each of these colors are the secondary colors: orange, green, and violet. Whereas orange is the result of red and yellow, green is produced by mixing yellow and blue and violet is produced by mixing red and blue.

When these secondary colors are mixed with the primary colors, they create six tertiary colors. For example, red-orange is created by mixing red with orange, and red-violet is produced by mixing red with violet. Tertiary colors are more common in nature than primary and secondary colors.

Artists can pair these colors in various ways depending on what they are trying to achieve. Complementary colors are those that are located directly across from one another on the color wheel. To imbue a pairing with a more subtle appearance, artists can instead use colors that are next to a complementary color. For example, yellow and blue-violet can be used rather than yellow and violet. This type of pairing is referred to as split complementary colors.

There are also analogous and triad colors. Analogous colors refer to colors that are next to the main color. When yellow is the main color, the analogous colors are yellow-orange and yellow-green. Analogous colors are harmonious with one another. Meanwhile, triad colors are colors that have three colors between them. For example, violet, green, and orange are triad colors.

Low Prescription Rates Continue among Heart Failure Patients

Peter Gregor, MD, practices as a cardiologist in Owensboro, Kentucky. With more than 40 years of experience, Peter Gregor, MD, is interested in several heart-related subjects, including heart failure.

The University of California, Los Angeles, recently released the results of a study on people with heart failure. Researchers looked at more than 3,500 patients from cardiology and primary care practices that were part of the Change the Management of Patients with Heart Failure registry (CHAMP-HF) and compared the new results to those from a previous study conducted between 2007 and 2009.

In the prior study, researchers discovered that many patients with heart failure were not receiving the recommended doses of three primary medications as laid out by the American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology, and Heart Failure Society of America. These medications are important for helping patients with heart failure live longer.

According to the results of the first study, 27 to 67 percent of patients were not prescribed these medications at all. Those who were prescribed them were given doses lower than what was recommended. In fact, only about 1 percent of participants were prescribed the target doses of all three types of medication.

Despite taking place a decade later, this new study found that prescribing habits have not improved. Many patients are still not being prescribed the recommended doses of critical heart failure medication, thus suggesting that new strategies may be necessary to ensure these patients are cared for properly.

How Water-Soluble Oils Differ from Traditional Oil Paints

Based in Kentucky, Peter Gregor, MD, provides cardiovascular care to patients. Outside of his work, Peter Gregor, MD, is a painter. He began painting with watercolors but now uses water-soluble oil paints.

Many people like the idea of painting with oils, but traditional oil paint can be intimidating or difficult to use. For this reason, many painters who are new to oil paints prefer water-soluble oils. 

Water-soluble oil paints are mixable with water, which means painters can clean their brushes with water instead of harsh solvents. This makes water-soluble oils much more portable and easy to use. 

Water-soluble oil paints can even be diluted with water. When diluted thinly, water-soluble paints dry within five to 10 minutes. When used straight from the tube, the paints usually take one to three days to dry. However, water-soluble oils do not reactivate when water is added after they have dried.

The Art of Seascape Painting

Kentucky-based Peter Gregor, MD, completed his post-graduate education at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. He holds more than 20 years of experience as a cardiologist. To take a break from his medical practice, Peter Gregor, MD, spends time seascape painting.

With seascape painting it is important to know how elements are organized and blend together, starting from the background and working through the foreground. For instance, when painting a picture with a visible sky, the sky is typically completed first, with the artist layering the middle- and foreground afterward. Each section should be finished first before proceeding to the next.

Many artists use acrylic paint due to its quick-drying ability. Acrylic paint allows an artist to work through layers much faster than when using slow-drying oils. This allows complex colors to be easily applied. The quick-drying quality also enables an artist to use materials that help in the process, such as masking tape and fluids.

The choice of colors in seascapes has significant effects on creating the overall mood of a painting. Cooler tones reflect subdued and somber images. Shadows and highlights can be distinguished by complementary colors.

Congenital Heart Conditions - Ventricular Septal Defects

A former cardiologist with Owensboro Health in Kentucky, Peter Gregor, MD, has helped patients with many types of heart disease. Peter Gregor, MD’s professional priorities encompass researching, diagnosing, and treating adult congenital heart disease.

Adult congenital heart disease comes in many forms, the most common of which is a ventricular septal defect (VSD). With VSDs, the patient is born with a hole in the ventricular septum, which is the wall that separates the left and right sides of the lower heart. In 500 births, one infant will typically have a VSD, and isolated VSDs make up at least one in every five congenital heart defects. They can occur alongside other congenital heart defects as well, however.

Most small VSDs never require treatment, but large untreated VSDs can pose significant health risks. High blood pressure in the lungs often occurs in women with large VSDs, as does low blood oxygen. Large VSDs should be treated in childhood or infancy, as once these negative symptoms present themselves, VSD closure may no longer be possible. Heart failure can also occur as a result of VSDs, especially with a sufficiently large hole, due to the pumping of extra blood into the lungs with each heartbeat.

Egbe Hospital’s Spring of Life Center Tackles HIV in Kogi State

Peter Gregor, MD, is a respected cardiologist and former professor of practice at Marshall University. Dr. Peter Gregor is also a proponent of charitable medical care and has donated his time and expertise to humanitarian causes in Africa, including Bega kwa Bega, a charity based in Uganda, and the Egbe Hospital in Nigeria.

The Spring of Life Counseling Center at Egbe Hospital provides HIV/AIDS support, treatment, screening, and care for people in Nigeria’s Kogi State. The region is currently grappling with an HIV prevalence rate that is higher than the national average and low HIV testing rates. The Spring of Life aims to increase HIV status awareness in the local population by providing emotional support and counseling before, during, and after testing. 

The Center provides wraparound services in addition to medical care. Clients who test positive are immediately connected to antiretroviral therapy and gain access to nutritional support and home care. The Spring of Life also coordinates community education and awareness training that emphasizes prevention and testing. The center is funded by donations and is located on the same grounds as the Egbe Hospital. Between 2011 and 2015, the Spring of Life tested nearly 13,000 people for HIV.

Things to Remember When Painting Seascapes

For more than 40 years, Peter Gregor, MD, has worked as a cardiologist in California, West Virginia, and now Kentucky. In his free time, Dr. Gregor enjoys painting seascapes.

If you paint seascapes, here are two points to remember:

1. Pay attention to water reflections. Both water and wet sand are extremely reflective and capable of capturing anything happening in the sky. Tone is far more important than color, and for this reason, a seascape may appear more orange and yellow when the sun is setting and more gray when the sky is overcast. 

2. Check the foam. There are two types of foam in seascape paintings: 
Wave foam and surface foam. Wave foam sprays above the wave or is created when a wave breaks against itself or a surface. When you’re painting, make sure that surface foam follows the curve of the wave and that wave foam has soft edges. 
Surface foam rests on top of the water and is usually seen near a wave’s break. Seen from above, and using only the right brain to pick up the edges of patterns, there is often a suggestion of a recurring figure of eight or, seen in the horizontal, this looks like the infinity sign. There is an excellent book about painting water by Bert N Petri called The Complete Guide To Painting Water. In addition, seafoam must follow the same perspective and tone rules as everything else.