Other People's Palettes

A Van Gogh work that used THAT green!

To know me is to know that I LOVE COLOR! And yet, I remain true to my basic color painting palette which I have written about in the past, I don't have 30 colors on my palette, I have 9. My color palette for portrait and landscape is: Cadmium Yellow Medium, Cadmium Yellow Light, Permanent Red, Alizarin Crimson, Ultramarine Blue, Permanent Rose, Viridian, Pthalo Green and Titanium White. That is my basic GO-TO palette that I take with me each week.

As I reviewed my 2022 art notes in my personal art notebook, I realized that I had focused on gleaning colors from other artist palettes. This led to me then wanting to incorporate a few special colors from their palettes into mine. At the PSA (Portrait Society of America) Conference, I listened and noted many modern artist palettes. I am especially enamored with Adrienne Stein and her portrait work so I noted her current palette which she graciously shared with us attendees. Her palette included a lovely purple called Amethyst by Michael Harding. It also included a spectacular vibrant pink called Brilliant Pink. Once I returned home from the conference I purchased those two colors online and have been using them in my portrait from life painting sessions. I am still determining if they are necessary but they sure are fun--the purple creates nice shadows and the pink is great for skin tones.

Next, last fall I simply had to follow up with another painter as to what colors she used in her sky. I attend Art Critique fairly often (once a month) and this artist had a colorful believable impressionist sky filled with yellows pinks and greens. I could not stop thinking about that sky and later emailed her to ask what green she used, it was just gorgeous. I have not yet purchased this color, but it is on my "to try" list-- the color is Yellow Green Pale.

A Van Gogh work that used THAT green!

Lastly, in December of last year, I was able to attend the Van Gogh in America Exhibit at the DIA (Detroit Institute of Arts). Wow! The exhibit was just incredible. I really looked closely at the paint application and the colors! While the exhibit did not speak directly to Van Gogh's palette (I wish it had), I did notice that he used quite a bit of green. Hard to say in writing, but visually the works of Van Gogh are so much more vibrant that what you see in a photo, they are amazing! What green did he use? Not Viridian I don't think. So I got home from the exhibit all curious, and yep I Googled "Van Gogh's Palette". The next "to try" color for me will be Emerald Green. 

As you can tell, I very much look forward to trying and incorporating new colors into my palette this year! Color palettes were not my intention at the start of 2022, that is simply where curiosity led me. Let's hope it all leads to art success!

Sara