New palette

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I don't have a new palette but the phrase "fresh juicy watercolor," said by so many artists, was going on and on in my brain, making me feel guilty - that I am not doing my best in what I create because I am being stingy with the caked-up paint in my old palette. How I will quickly pay hundreds of dollars for a workshop, but penny-wise and pound-foolish style, not squeeze new fresh juicy paint into my palette because I don't want to waste that stone-hard piddly piece of watercolor paint that I haven't used up!
So, I took the palette we got as a freebie in Charles Reid's class, and looked at the chart I had made of my pigments - their staining tendencies, their transparency, their sedimentary qualities, and chose my colors, labeled them with Sharpie in this new palette, and squeezed fresh juicy paint in its wells. Then I put the old palette in the sink in several soaks of water until the water ran clean. End of stone-hard pebbles of paint.
And the surprising good thing about the freebie palette, which I wouldn't have chosen to buy because I wouldn't have realized the good thing, is that all the wells are in the same plane. When you fold up the palette, thw two lids close on top of the center part which contains all the wells. So it is possible to keep the palette upright and not let said juicy paint fall on top of each other.

I am looking forward to Shari Blaukopf's workshop next year in May in San Francisco. I found it quite by chance as I was fiddling about on her website.
And after Jean Warren's workshop, I am having serious thoughts about withdrawing out of the impressionist style workshops of Michael Reardon and Andy Evansen. As much as I love their work, I feel right now I want to be more abstract. Still thinking......

This was done pre-new palette and pre-Kolinsky sable - I just forgot to post it. I went to Shoreline Park in an attempt to add more plein-air into my life, without an event, without a companion egging me on. I didn't stay long, but I did this. The whites are still a major design element in my mind, which I think elevates my work.



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