Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Nubble Light, limited palette




The first photo shows my Yarka, French style easel. It has aluminium legs and is lighter than the typical French easel. It's great for plein air painting. I put oven glass in the easel as a mixing surface. Even dried acrylics are easily removed by wetting the glass. The folded paper towel, at the forward edge of the palette, is wetted, excess water squeezed out, and the acrylic paint globs stay fresher longer on the wet paper.
I had a request to do a painting of the Nubble Lighthouse in Maine for my next art show. It was an opportunity to experiment with a limited palette. I used permanent red, yellow ochre, prussian blue and titanium white. It is fun to see what I can do with a limited palette. My normal palette is only five colors: cad yellow, cad red, ultramarine blue, burnt sienna and rarely permanent green (to gray things down). One of these days I'll try the Zorn Palette of black, yellow ochre and red. White is always understood, officially it's not a color. I have seen some amazing art even with this surprising palette.
This painting is also in the art auction at the Fuller Gardens.

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