Monday, November 25, 2013

The Zorn Color Palette




Last week after experimenting with the Zorn palette of colors during a plein air session I painted this chart on a scrap piece of canvas. My husband had a good idea (because I have a habit of making these charts) that I could punch holes in the sides and keep them in a 3 ring binder - which I thought was a great idea! Its not perfectly balanced in hues or values but was a great learning tool. A nice side effect was that I ended up with good size piles of all the colors to use on some backyard plein air pieces.

"Down the Path" on 6x8" canvas panel

"Down the Path" is a 2 hour sketch of a view into the garden from my kitchen window. It was a cold drizzly day so I was glad to have something I could paint from inside. One morning a few days later I painted the garden bench from up in my studio. It was a sunny day but very windy and cold. The red oak leaf hydrangea leaves were stealing the show. Reds seem to really pop in this palette of colors so I probably should have toned it down a bit, but had fun just letting the colors fly!

"Stealing the Show" on a 6x8" canvas panel

The Zorn palette consists of Ivory Black, Cadmium Red Medium (which I didn't have so I used Grumbacher Red), Yellow Ochre and Titanium White. I've been working on a larger studio piece of a foggy autumn day using these colors and will share it next time if all goes well. Thanks for stopping in!



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