Very limited palette

[Linda Brandon]

Hi Margaret, you haven't posted for a long time, welcome back!

I'm just wondering if you get all the various shades of outdoor greens that your heart desires with this palette.

[Michele Rushworth]

John Burton, well known plein aire painter from Arizona, works with a very limited palette, too. (one red, one yellow, one blue, plus white.) Every six months or so he switches to a different set of red/yellow/blue colors to see how he likes those. You could stick with the palette you have for a while, then when you run out, try a different trio.

[Richard Budig]

Here is a limited palette espoused by Jose Parramon in his book, Theh Big Book Of Oil Color. It works fine. He gives many descriptions of making every color there is, including earth colors, with these few colors:

Alizarin Crimson
Cad Yellow Medium
Prussian Blue
White

Prussian Blue is a very powerful color, and so you can get some industrial strength greens from it with CYM.

CYM and AC will give you reds going from "true" red out to the orange reds.

All three mixed in various combination will give cold, neutral and warm blacks.

Right now, I'm using vermilion, a mix of yellow ocher and cad yellow medium. burnt sienna, cobalt blue and raw umber. For very dark darks (warm or cool) I use aliz crimson, ultramarine blue, and burnt sienna. You can get very warm or very cool darks with this.

[Tom Edgerton]

I took a workshop with Shane Neal last spring, and one exercise was to paint from life with five colors: white, ultramarine blue, cad yellow medium (I think), cad red light, and alizarin crimson. Not just the skin tones, but the whole painting. My model had near black hair, and after some brief struggle, I even got a deep black with the same colors. I didn't find it any more daunting than painting with my usual palette.

As you might guess, my result was much fresher, less labored and really satisfying to have done, more so than a subsequent painting of the same model and lighting with the fuller palette. It really opened my eyes.

I'm beginning to think that the curse of living in our society and our time is the curse of too much choice.

(But I still wouldn't want to grind them.)

Best--TE

[Marvin Mattelson]

I get great results with raspberry jam and peanut butter, washed down with grape juice; on white bread, of course.

[Tom Edgerton]

Marvin--

Always thought your work looked good enough to eat... Haw!

Best as always--TE

(Though come to think of it, the luscious array of colors on the Mattleson/Paxton palette obscures the fact that it's mixed from only four basic colors plus white and black. Not counting the bread.)

[Michele Rushworth]

Hey, VanGogh used to eat his paints. Wonder if that was before or after he went off the deep end....