Changing Up the Palette

It was just about two months ago that I put away my acrylic sta-wet palette.  I had been painting fall trees and even snow scenes all winter with lots of yellow ochre, quinacridone gold, burnt sienna and sap green.

Since then, my husband and I travelled to The Pas, Manitoba where we fished for over a month at Cormorant Lake.  I got to experience spring all over again as spring in BC had been very early and was all done by the time we left.  The colours in Northern Manitoba this year were very vivid due to the clear air and sunny skies.  I painted various parts of Cormorant Lake and Frog Creek in watercolours in vivid yellow greens and the crimsons of the red willows.

Now that I am back in my studio in Kelowna, I want to hold on to those colours of spring for just a little longer.  I selected a photo reference I had taken in April of the pond behind the Father Pandosy Mission and got a 24” x 24” canvas ready.

But when I went to lay out my paints on a nice fresh palette, I realized that my “go to” favourites just weren’t going to work for what I had envisioned.  I paused, pulled out my pastels and played around with some spring colours to get some ideas.  Then I squeezed paint out on my palette, using several tubes that have been unopened for some time (a pair of nutcrackers were required to get the caps off) and leaving some of my standard colours in the paint box:

• Azo Yellow Medium
  
• Cadmium Yellow Medium
  
• Quinacridone Burnt Orange
  
• Quinacridone Magenta
  
• Indanthrene Blue
  

Plus some of my standards:

• Burnt Sienna
  
• Dioxazine Purple
  
• Cobalt Blue
  
• Ultramarine Blue
  
• Green Gold
  

For the underpainting I wanted to keep the colours light – more of a stain, really and to get a sense of that burst of new growth.  It will take me a couple of weeks to finish the painting.  I will write another post when I am done!

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