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“Dining Out”

8” by 10” oil on canvas

Avaiable through auction here

 

 

 

For months now I have been toying with the idea of trying a limited palette. A visit to artist Kathleen Dunphy's website and reading her blog post on her limited palette planted the seed. I have limited my palette in the past and returned to my twelve to fifteen colors pretty quickly. Why did this keep cropping up in my thoughts? Her work is so beautiful and her use of grayed colors so compelling. Her palette leaves out several of my favorite and most used colors such as alizarin crimson, burnt sienna, cadmium yellow medium. Would I be able to adapt and survive without these colors? Her argument for trying it sure sounded convincing. AND I do love a challenge! So, I ordered the colors and took the leap!

 

Benefits of a Limited Palette

 

Benefits of Limited Palette

-Save money $$$ 

  Let's face it. Paints are expensive. Instead of buying every delightful sounding color that grabs your eye, you can stock up on the basic colors and use more paint!

  Oh no! Does this mean I won't be using my St. Remy Blue? The jury is still out on that one. 

-Color harmony is easier to achieve when your basic primary colors are used to create

  your secondary and tertiary colors.

-Faster way to paint. No need to search around to find more of the colors you need when there are only a few. 

-Forces you to think about value (the relative lightness and darkness in your subject)

-Thinking about warm and cool temperature of colors rather than adding more color.

-Less to take along on painting trips and outings. 

-Less clutter in your studio. Less clutter definitely means more peace and creative flow.

-Simplified thought process! This is huge for me! Limit the distractions please!

 

 

Chosen Palette

 

These are her colors and more information can be found on her blog under limited palette. These brands are important as color varies so much between brands which can be maddening but true. I have always liked Rembrandt paints and find them to be a nice consistency and color saturation. Kathleen does a lot of landscapes and is known for her Plein air work in beautiful California. But she also does wonderful still life and animals as well. Since animals are my passion, I was hooked. The piece above is my first sampling of working in this palette below. I do add an acrylic under painting in cadmium red light which peeks through. I learned that she uses cadmium yellow medium in acrylic as a wash for her underpainting.

 

Lemon yellow Gamblin or Utrecht

Permanent Red Medium (Rembrandt)

Ultramarine Blue Deep (Rembrandt)

Naples Yellow Dark (Rembrandt)

Cold Gray (Rembrandt)

Titanium White (Any brand)

 

Other artists who have used a limited palette. 

 

Anders Zorn, a famous Swedish artist who painted portraits of three American presidents, Taft, Cleveland, and Roosevelt. He was known for his very limited palette of four colors. His painting, Ols Maria, shows the amazing versatility of his palette. So many limited palettes to try now! :-) Ok, I may have to refer to the last benefit of simplified thought process here. First things first.  Zorn's Palette worked because the black leaned towards blue giving him green when he added yellow ochre and he achieved beautiful skin tones using these colors. We all learned in school that the three primaries, red, blue, and yellow make the other colors. Add in a little white and you can creat all kinds of colors. 

 

Vermillion

Yellow Ochre

White

Black

 

 

 

 

Monet, whose masterful use of color can not be surpassed in my opinion, used a pretty limited palette. Pretty hard not to try this master's palette! Here is one of his many delightful pieces, Tulips In A Field. 

 

 

Cad yellow Lt.

Cad yellow med.

Cad red Lt.

Aliz Permanent

Ultra Blue

Cerulean Blue

Ivory Black

Flake White

 

* Note that flake white is what was used by the masters and contains lead. Many modern artists use titanium white as the alternative but Flake white is still available as well as a flake white alternative. This is a whole other topic worth investigating. Yikes. Just when you were seeking simplicity. 

 

 

 

 

What do I hope to gain?

 

 

 

My goal in adopting this challenge is to stretch and grow as an artist. To strengthen my skills in mixing paint, to better see value shifts and temperature and to SIMPLIFY my work area. Probably the biggest motivator is to see if I can do it. Can I replace my tried and true colors and still create a painting I am happy about. This weekend, I purged paints, old brushes, old reference photos, and all sorts of unused items that were taking up space and causing psychic overload. It feels great and prepared me even more to focus on this challenge.  It has only been a week, and I can already feel improved focus and learning. This can only strengthen my skills as an artist and teacher as well. Have there been frustrations? Oh yes! I miss alizarin crimson and burnt sienna. :-) Time will tell if I will permanently adopt this palette but like I said. I LOVE a good challenge and encourage you to try a limited palette too! If you have tried to stick to a few colors or would like to try this challenge with me, please let me know in the comments.

 

Perhaps I will discover that I miss my old palette but I do believe we have to try new possibilities and change things up to stay fresh. 

 

I will give more feedback on my palette in a later blog post. To make sure you don't miss it, I encourage you to follow my blog and to sign up for my newsletter.

 

 

 

References:

http://www.swintonsart.com/index.php/blog-articles/item/benefits-of-painting-with-a-limited-palette

Http://www.kathleendunphy.com/blog/limited palette 

 

 

 

 

 

It has been more than a year since my last blog post. Sounds like I am in confession for those of you raised in the Catholic tradition. Well it sort of is.....a way to seque into the blogosphere again. :-) I didn't intend to be gone so long but I think I needed a break. Not from painting. Not at all. The past decade has seen many changes in my world. Three moves. One to the Oceanfront of Virginia Beach. Then down to city life in Norfolk. And back home to my home in Chesapeake where I raised my three sons. The moves where fun and a bit crazy but I got it out of my system and realized, the best place was where I started. In the last decade, I have taught classes, group and private, sold through gallleres, online, returned to eBay to auction smaller pieces, and dabbled in quick videos on Instagram and Facebook. Still trying to fine tune my focus. Lol. Through it all, one things stands out. I am an artist who LOVES TO PAINT. I love to paint animals most. All kinds, farm animals, wildlife, and pets! I even do a little pet sitting on the side. They speak to my soul so they are a joy to paint. You will also find still life, seascapes, and the occasional landscape to shake things up. I am especially drawn to the way light affects the subject, creating great drama or a soft mood. In today's painting, I love how this sweet cow is backlit and the light dances around the edges and her face is mostly colorful grays. So I am back to share my art and thoughts and more of this artists journey. While I have come home to the place where this online art journey began, I feel more changes are coming. I want to go deeper with my teaching and painting and hope to share where this takes me. I'll be trying Kathleen Dunphy's limited five color palette starting next week and will share my experiences! Have a wonderful day! Hope you will forgive me for being gone so long. :-))))