How Limited Isn't Limiting

Or, Pushing The Limits.

What is a limited palette and why would you use it?

To me a "very" limited palette is:

White

Ultramarine blue

Burnt sienna 

That's pretty limited.

Now on to the why.

It helps you see and learn to paint the form or shape.

I follow a number of artist blogs and have been watching a number of artists recently working in a limited palette.  I teach art concept classes in River Run Gallery and this month we were working on using color to create form or shape and we played with lots of different brushes just to see how they effected the paint.  I called on one of the artists I follow to use one of her paintings as an example because the composition was simple yet so effective in telling the story of a coastline and making you ask questions about what is beyond the shoreline, morning or evening, before or after a storm

and do those trees on the right have a secret?

The painting had interesting sky, water, reflections and distant trees.

Charleen Martin's blog provided the inspiration and I'm providing you a link to check her out.

Thank you so much Charleen for your inspiration.

 

Her painting Murmurs and Whispers was our inspiration and you need to follow the link to see it and why she named it that.  Very clever.

 We started the class working with lots of different brushes and learning what you could do with them.

The big ribbon thing on the left was just loading up a wide bristle brush and moving it around to see what happened if. . . 

On the right is a palette knife tree.  

Here's a palette knife bush.

This was loads of fun.

This blue tree was with a fan brush.  

Lots of fun there.
 

  This tree used several brushes and all three colors allowed and seven shades using the three colors.  

More fun.

Here's what my practice sheet looked like when we were finished with that exercise.

Then we switched gears and did a study of Charleen Martin's Murmurs and Whispers.

We were trying to SEE and paint form and shape using only the three colors.

This was my finished painting for the night.

We painted with acrylic paint on canvas paper, which I love.

It has lots of tooth, but even though it comes on a pad, like paper,

it feels and acts like canvas.

This was so fun to use only three colors and try to get the depth and feel of the painting of Charleen Martin using only three colors.  

Thank you so much Charleen for your inspiration.

These weren't intended to be finished paintings,

this was another exercise in achieving depth, shape and form.

These classes don't complete a painting as my other classes do.

These classes are meant to teach concepts and practice methods to learn how to see better and execute what we see.

Thanks for stopping by today,

and I'd love for you to join us in class.