The Joy Setting Up a New Palette
There is something so deeply satisfying and Zen-like about setting up a new paint palette. First, the fun of a beautiful new “virgin” palette, with so much possibility stretching infinitely forward. What wonderful adventures will you share with the new palette? What beautiful pages will you create together? It’s a special relationship.
Second, the planning—what paints will you pick? A limited, minimalist primary color palette? An all-earth-paint palette? Just granulating paints? Sparkly paints? Or maybe all-gouache? In Vol. 1 No. 3 of Exploration Quarterly, I surveyed eight different mini and micro palettes and extolled the virtues of using a limited palette—that is, fewer paints and learning to mix them to make the colors you need (you can access the issue digitally via the link above, with a new subscription at only $39).
But this morning I started filling up the little pans of the mini Cornelissen & Son palette (pictured at left)). I had decided to use this little gem from London with a curated selection of my handmade paints crafted from pigment collected on my explorations all over the world: sparkly glacier silt from Alaska; burnt red ochre from Namibia; glowing yellow umber from a hidden holloway in Dorset, England; magnetite from Baja; and many variations of orange and red ochres from the U.S., Mexico, Africa, Australia, and Europe. I previously had a selection in one of my mini palettes (see below) but there was only room for six, and my new little palette holds 17!
I waited to fill them because I had ordered a set of custom-made little 1x1 cm paint pans from a seller on Etsy. I’m looking forward to an afternoon transferring my treasures over, reliving my experiences collecting and making them and using them in paintings—a welcome antidote to the chaos of the world around me. And a much better use of my time than the alternative, which is watching cat videos on Facebook.
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If you would like to learn to make your own “feral watercolors,” as I call them, and filling your own little palettes, I have an online and on-demand class you can join right now; see below.
Lifetime access included, plus I will email you a special Zine to print!
Let's play in the dirt—and more! Learn to create paint and ink from soil and plants in over 4.5 hours of class instruction plus many resource downloads and links. Only $45 for lifetime access, including updates and a private online community of field arts enthusiasts just like you. [If you already have purchased these classes and missed the email update to this new access system, please email me and I'll send you an access code.]
