No. 3 in the Limited Palette Challenge

Are people who do not paint aware of what goes through an artist's mind before and during a painting session?  I wonder if when I am dead and gone if people will look at the 5 paintings I have executed in this challenge and wonder what on earth I was up to. These 5 pieces will be part of the greater sized Wind Canyon Series, but have their own identity, as the colors used are not the intuitive choices I normally make.  It’s getting hard to stick with just these three colors and black and white to do a painting. The greenery here in New Mexico is not that docile shade of green you can make with blue, yellow and black…….it needs some earth tones in it. And alizarin crimson is NOT an earth color. I have never seen a green in nature that did not have a bit of  real clear red in its makeup, and these greens are decidedly cooler.

For those of you who are not artists, these colors are probably not easy to identify, so I am including swatches I took from the Gamblin paint site, because theirs is the paint I have used for this challenge.

Alizarin Crimson

Cad Yellow Lt

Ultramarine Blue

Ivory Black

Titanium  White

Looking at these colors, it is not hard to see the limitations of this challenge. That is especially true for artists schooled in really traditional colors, who use some if not many earth tones.

But I have vowed to complete the series and here is number 3 in the 5 painting challenge. Only two more to go. This is also Étude #5 in my Wind Canyon series. Fried Egg Trail is what I call this piece. And like the others before it, it is oil on prepared wood board.

Looking at these colors, it is not hard to see the limitations of this challenge. That is especially true for artists schooled in really traditional colors, who use some if not many earth tones.

But I have vowed to complete the series and here is number 3 in the 5 painting challenge. Only two more to go.  This is also Étude #5 in my Wind Canyon series. Fried Egg Trail is what I call this piece. And like the others before it, it is oil on prepared wood board.