Tag Archives: limited palette

Red, white, and light blue

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Two paintings from the weekend exploring reflective surfaces again.  The PBR can was a lot of fun – the amount of detail work made it challenging in the best way.  The blue candy was for my friend Zachary, a photographer from NYC who is pushing me to keep going with the cans/candy.

untitled : Oil on wood. 6″x8″ 2016
untitled can study 7 : Oil on board. 9″x12″ 2016

The candy was done with 3 colors: Ult. Blue, Burnt Umber, and Cad Yellow (plus white). The can was done with the same, plus Cad Red Lt. I love working with a limited palette!

Color Studies 2

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Two weeks ago I made a series of small (5″x7″ paintings) using a limited palette of red, blue, yellow, brown, and white.   This week I made another set of paintings using the same limited palette, but adding a warm and cool version of each color, and removing (mostly) the brown.

In some instances it made a much clearer painting.  See how much more pink the teddy bear is when I can use Alizarin Crimson instead of Cad Red Light.  In other areas it added some frustration since I had to both focus on color mixing, as well as color temperature.  Also – I’m learning that a concrete floor is not the best surface to work on.  I see some rubber pads from Home Depot in the near future.

The strongest paintings are Teddy and Cowboy.  The weakest is the evening Embankment.  The evening light was fading fast and I was rushing.

untitled sketch : Oil on canvasboard. 5"x7" 2015

untitled sketch : Oil on canvasboard. 5″x7″ 2015

untitled sketch : Oil on canvasboard. 5"x7" 2015

untitled sketch : Oil on canvasboard. 5″x7″ 2015

untitled sketch : Oil on canvasboard. 5"x7" 2015

untitled sketch : Oil on canvasboard. 5″x7″ 2015

untitled sketch : Oil on canvasboard. 5"x7" 2015

untitled sketch : Oil on canvasboard. 5″x7″ 2015

untitled sketch : Oil on canvasboard. 5"x7" 2015

untitled sketch : Oil on canvasboard. 5″x7″ 2015

Waves

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I’ve been interested in waves and the ocean as part of the larger landscape series.  It feels like a good fit with some of the emotional content behind the work.  A few weeks back I took a trip to the beach that was sunless and windy – but provided some great reference shots!

I’ve started working up some ideas for sketches – the first is below.  Despite the day being cool and grey the painting still came out a little sunny… I’ll need to work on that in the future.

untitled (wave study) : Oil on linen. 18" x 12". 2015

untitled (wave study) : Oil on linen. 18″ x 12″. 2015