My Old Master Palette

[Karin Wells]

There are times when I see an artist's paintings that I wonder what colors they use.

In my work, I am greatly inspired by the Old Masters. Here is the limited core palette of (mostly Windsor-Newton) colors I use to get "that look"...

*Titanium White
Zinc White
*Yellow Ochre Pale (Windsor Newton)
*Yellow Ochre
Cadmium Orange
Raw Sienna
Burnt Sienna
Alizarin Crimson
*Indian Red
Raw Umber
Burnt Umber
French Ultramarine Blue
Prussian Blue
Ivory Black

* Indicates opaque paints. All the rest of the colors in my palette are glaze colors.

Note: I seldom, if ever, use the blues except as glaze colors. I make the color of "blue" the old-fashioned way - by mixing ivory black and titanium white. (When you see my work, you would swear I use blue.....but I don't!)

Although I think that there is no color that I cannot mix with these paints , I do experiment with other colors.