How I Work (Sometimes)

Sometimes, when I sit down to work, I start with a palette, and explore how the colors combine in various paintings. It's a fun exercise, and it helps keep me painting consistently.

In this case, my palette is quinacridone burnt orange, indian yellow, manganese sky blue, and carbazole violet. You can see them laid out across the top left of the sheet--plus a little bit on how they combine. Then, all around the page you can see my trials. I'm painting on a 300 lb block of Kilamanjaro paper from Cheap Joes.

I love doing this. It's relaxing, and sometimes I really like the results.  (Not always.)  Sometimes it's an exercise in frustration.  I have three of the small paintings here as close ups.  I think I need to go back into the bottom painting, but you can decide for yourselves.

As a bonus--the light is lovely this morning--I could take photos that were fairly accurate and didn't require much color correction.  Woot!