Wake Up, Purple and Turquoise tests

 

On my way back from errands and making a painting of a tree downtown, I couldn't resist stopping by the Avenue des Arts store to pick up a few new things including a palette, a paint brush and two new colours. I got small 5mL size tubes both from Winsor and Newton just to try them out a bit. The first was Winsor violet (PV23) a dioxazine chemical which is non toxic and should have decent lightfastness meaning that it will resist fading in sunlight although it is not as durable as some of the other paints in my collection. You see the 'koolaid' purple in the sky and the roof tops on the left. The other colour was phthalo turquoise which is the basic chemical state for phthalo blue (the other versions are chemically modified), it is also non toxic and widely used for cars, plastics, etc. I included it in the watery bands on the bottom along with some of the other phthalos. It made an incredible green shade with lemon yellow (PY175) as seen in the trees bottom right.

Wake Up, Coffee 8 x 11" watercolour paper, watercolour, March 2021 #1361b

 

To test out the new paints I used the back of an old painting, which you can see here from 2010. In the 2021 remake I made the figure more dynamic and made other creative choices like adding a plate of eggs and coffee. The theme is about waking up and being in the middle of dream and reality. You can also compare the difference in the purples, in the 2010 painting purples were made by mixing red and blue, resulting in a slightly dull and grey purple, while in the 2021 painting the Winsor violet really stands out. Same with the turquoise, here it is a little greyish, while in the 2021 painting the turquoise is like a popsicle colour.

Wake Up!? 8 x 11" watercolour paper, watercolour, 2010 #1361a