Plein Air with Limited Palette
Primary Palettte, 5'x 7" I finally got a chance to do some plein air painting at our cabin on a small lake in North Jersey. I had just finished reading Macpherson's "Landscape Painting", and tried two of his limited palettes. The first is a primary palette of Cadmium Yellow Light, Cadmium Red Light, Alizarin Crimson, Ultramarine Blue, and White. It felt a little constraining but I like the results. I think I missed having Cerulean Blue and Cadmium Red Medium the most. The next day I tried his earth tone palette of Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna, Chromatic Black, and White. This was a challenge! It was impossible to get the colors that were actually in the landscape but at least the values were right. I was surprised at how blue the Chromatic Black was when I added White. But when mixed with the Yellow Ochre for green it worked more like Ivory Black and produced an olive green that really wasn't what I was going for. Earth Tone Palette, 5"x 7