Oil Painting

What is the Zorn palette? What did Sargent’s palette consist of? Artists have always been intrigued by palettes of other artists. Why is our palette so important? Our paint colors define and influence who we are as artists; in particular, our painting boundaries and our color choices.

Color mixing is intuitive and unique to each of us. Yet, unconsciously, each one of us works within a small part of the 3-D Munsell color space. The Munsell color space is one of the most comprehensive collection of colors that can be mixed on our palettes, it is a collection of nearly 1400 colors. This sophisticated system accounts for value in color. Which causes it to be 3- dimensional. It also takes into consideration physical limits of color mixing.

Oil paints mixed to the Munsell scale are not widely available. As an artist I would premix my paints for each project. Realizing that there is a real need for fully customizable oil paints, I started The Grackle Studio. My goal was to bring the vast range of color, and the subtle hues of the Munsell color space to the artist palettes. I gained a lot of color experience mixing for The Grackle Studio. Some of these mixing principles can be used even in our daily painting practice. I felt that by sharing some of them, I could help simplify a little bit of the painting process for each one of us.

Color mixing is like a chemistry experiment. In some ways it produces logical results, and at other times it results in unexpected surprises. To a great extent, this process can be manipulated to achieve great color precision. Every color has a value. Value is a characteristic of color that defines how dark or light a color can seem. I like to mix colors at the same value. I do this to predict the end value. For example, if I were trying to mix a dark orange, I will bring both red and yellow to the same dark value as I am looking for. Of course, I like to darken and lighten things using white or black. But for the sake of accuracy, it does help to mix at the right value. I use this principle when I am trying to mix a new color. While value is one of more obvious aspects of color, it can be difficult to predict value in highly chromatic colors. They will seem brighter than they actually are.

The second thing I look out for while mixing are the hue shifts. Paint mixing is not a linear process, it has an organic nature to it. Hue shifts can be observed when you mix primaries to obtain a secondary color. A green might look bluish or a red might have a purplish tint to it. It can also be seen when you try to lighten or darken a color. It is my opinion that hue shifts are inevitable in color mixing. Most hues shifts are very obvious and can be seen by the eye. But some hue differences can be very subtle. For example, the following two very similar-looking paint piles are actually two different hues.

During my early days of painting, I liked to fix my problems on the canvas rather than on my palette. My palette was overwhelmed with colors. I never got to use all of them. I now customize my palette for each painting. And I try to minimize the colors required. Five hues were used to create the following painting. I always work from life. A limited palette is useful in minimizing the guesswork.

Painting is an exceedingly complex endeavor. We have to think of the drawing, subject, composition, and a host of other things. It is a difficult juggle that when done right can look effortless. It therefore helps to simplify each aspect of painting before we launch into our projects. I always try to figure out my color needs before I start a painting. I like to make sure I have the right colors for the color scheme.

Artists of the past lived in a very different world than us. They did not have the distractions of the modern world. They managed to give all aspects of painting their focused attention and they were masters of their palettes. Thanks to the industrial revolution and the resulting needs of the industry we have several pigments at our behest, in order to make the most of this bounty it really helps to understand color. A better understanding of color leads to making informed choices while painting. It can also help in preventing problems before they happen on the canvas. At the end of the day a painting is nothing but a juxtaposition of color and all problems we face while painting are color problems.

Once, when I was still teaching art, the new principal asked my colleagues and me, about that, which gave us the most joy. I told him that there was nothing like a snow day. A whole day given, to do absolutely nothing more than what pleases you. He seemed shocked by my irreverence. Like my colleagues, I should have taken more pride in my family, I know. But I remember those sporadic days, without demands and without time limits, looking up from the watercolor on my drafting table, at the gray and cloudy sky, and watching the snow fall silently. It was magical. 

I came late to painting. At one time, I did receive a BFA in graphic design, but back then, that entailed making fancy letters with a graphic design pen. When I graduated from college, design pens had become a thing for the quaint tools museum, because Steve Jobs had invented the Mac with all the fonts software you could possibly need.

I had my three beautiful daughters. And I made quilts in stolen moments, while they were watching Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street on a 13 inch tv. Not the kind of quilts made from patchwork blocks, but whole scenes of appliqué, mostly wistful memories of my childhood in the Netherlands. And then, as you read earlier, I became an art teacher.

“The purpose of life is to discover your gift. The meaning of life is to give it away.” Picasso? Shakespeare? anyone?

I have retired from teaching, but I often think that I should have kept my day job. After all, the children thought that for the most part, art class was fun, plus, they gave me a paycheck. The work on my easel is often anything but fun and I spend more money on my art than I earn. “You have such talent”, my friends say, after I have wrestled with all the elements of design for weeks or months and have finally produced a painting. We painters do a lot of pretending. My friends picture me sitting at my easel in a state of divine inspiration, surrounded by the things I love. That last part is true. I have a small studio and I have surrounded myself with the colors and stuff of inspiration. I do love being there.  But as you know, the activity of painting is complicated and demanding.  You can’t shake a painting from your sleeve. (Dutch proverb) Every painting presents new challenges that have to be solved and when things don’t work out, as they so often don’t, it can be a disagreeable process. The rare and stolen moments of my snow days have become thousands of hours of hard work.

There are many days when I want to abandon the great aspiration in my life so that I won’t have to deal with the frustration. But I press on, for I know that it won’t be the end of me to overcome obstacles, which are essentially manageable discomforts, in order to find a solution. I work hard, I read and I study, because some day I want to attain mastery. But why?  

“An insufficiency in the self, the need to be a snail, leaving a trail of yourself as you move through the world. Hansel, leaving a trail of crumbs to lead you home.” William Kentridge on why we make art.

A young and talented painter asked me once what I would do if my paintings would fetch 6 figures. I chuckled. She’s young. As the reader realizes by now; I am older and perhaps wiser. At this stage, I know that this is not the reason why I paint. Yes, I can see many successful young people rightly become painters of great distinction, and I can wish, but, “You’re welcome, we, art teachers, taught you well” 

And thus we have arrived at the part about the hummingbird moth, as the title of this blog suggested. I remember one summer looking at an amazing bug, flying around my butterfly bush. An entomologist friend told me that I had been observing a hummingbird moth. An insect with wings like a hummingbird that used its long proboscis like a hummingbird to get to the nectar in the flowers. “Some people live their whole lives without ever seeing one,” she said. It struck me as profound, because I have always felt that the eye that sees, is self aware and is a link to the great order of all that is. I paint because I want to share the things and the people that I’ve seen. I want to hold on to that moment, when my eye has become aware. And hopefully, for a while at least, I can convey that I looked for something that made you, or the world we live in, precious to me. I know that mastery is an unattainable goal. But passion and commitment is what counts, and yes, despite the struggles, it is very satisfying.