Earlier this year I was exploring new paints, and the idea of using a minimalist palette.I painted out this test on the back of another painting, which I often do in order to conserve paper. The three paints were quinacridone magenta (PR122) which is a very bright pink, lemon yellow (PY175), and phthalo blue yellow shade (PB15), which is a kind of sky blue. In the top right I mixed them and over-layed carbon black to see if I could make earth tones, it didn't work out too well. In the big grid I mixed the colours in various combinations to see what kind of range I could get. Where indicated I added various paints for comparison, PB36 a bright green, PB29 a bright warm blue, PO62 a bright orange, and PR254 a bright red. The tri-colour mixes were subdued compared to the bright examples. To test it out for real, I did a painting on location of a hazy day in Benny park. It worked okay but the experience of using only three paints was frustrating, especially to make dark and earth tones. I think at least 6-8 paints would be a good minimal palette, but I use about 18 now.
Tri-colour paint test with black, 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, (No. 1640b)
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