A limited palette

Here's what happens when you limit your artist colors to just a few: you learn well the properties of color mixing. I learned the split-primary color system from a color workshop a few years ago:  each primary color has a cool version and a warm version. Thus, there are really six primary colors instead of three. For example, mixing a warm yellow and a warm blue will result in a very warm secondary hue of green. A cool blue with a cool red will give you a deep and cool purple,etc.


So it's great if you remember to bring all six primaries…which I didn't, of course, on our Mexico trip. I left a cool yellow at home. I figured that Mexico being all warm and stucco-ey, a warm yellow and an earthy yellow ochre would do the trick. 


I missed my lemon yellow.


It became clear that the new leaves struck by the early morning sun were a cooler, brighter green than I could get with the colors I brought. It was fun, though, and a challenge, to get as close as possible with what I had. In fact, the best part of painting in Mexico was the challenge of identifying the colors my eyes were seeing and then rapidly recreating them with paint. That was probably the area I had the most artistic growth in over the two weeks, getting well-versed in fiddling with color.


My all-time favorite Mazatlan color was a reddish-orangish-peach…it was gorgeous in the sunshine and in the shadow and I had everything I needed to get it just right:  both reds, a yellow and white, with a touch of blue for shadowing. Thrilling…I know! 


Adios!