As we neared the end of the Paint Yourself Happy challenge, I got to thinking about all of the color palettes I’d been exposed to just by looking at other people’s work. There was one in particular that I was really drawn to - it was three colors: a color called “cardamom” - sort of a warm, earthy green, like a fresh cardamom pod; one called “ardoise bretonne” - kind of a neutral/cool, medium value grey; and a kind of warm black called “deep black.”
I didn’t have any of those. So I decided to use what I thought would be decent approximations: Holbein’s “terre vert,” Holbein’s “Payne’s grey” + M. Graham’s “permanent Chinese white,” and Holbein’s “ivory black.”
It didn’t in any way resemble the other painter’s palette. And that’s okay! I like this one, too. I just started swiping color on to see what would happen. In the middle, I felt like the thing needed some gold, so I dropped in some Holbein’s “gold.” Gold never photographs particularly well; you have to be with the piece in person to really see it.
This feels like an…honest painting to me. Is it a heart? Is it a piece of land? Yes. Yes? Yes. This is where we are. This is the state of affairs.
