I’ve made two big breakthroughs this week.

The first is using a wooden palette. Colors are far more easy to understand — how light/dark, vivid/muted they are — against the medium tone of the wood. I wish that someone would manufacture a disposable paper palette in that medium tone. Then again, when I switch to a pochade box (small, self-enclosed box that holds canvas, brushes, paints, etc.) the wooden palette in that may be fine.

The second discovery is that the limited palette recommended by Emile Gruppe is just about perfect. Here are the colors he recommends, and my choices:

Ultramarine blue (I’m using French ultramarine)
Rose madder (I’m using Alizarin crimson)
Cadmium red deep
Orange
Cadmium yellow deep
Cadmium lemon yellow
Pthalocyanide blue

To that, I’ve added white plus a sap green. With those colors, I can mix almost anything that I need. (The sap green is on hand to save me mixing time, capturing fleeting light and colors en plein air.)

Some of my colors are by Grumbacher and some are Winsor & Newton. All are water-soluble oil paints.

I may reduce the number of colors that I’m using, but Gruppe’s palette has already made a big difference in the purity of my colors.