Mixing Colors - carrots

Colorful Watercolor

watercolor painting 30"x 22"

matted and framed $800.

The Pleasure of Mixing Paint Colors

The simple pleasures of mixing paints......Have you ever been in a class when someone asked what color to use to paint a certain object? Such as in a still life setup of fruits and vegetables. "What color shall I use to paint that carrot?" The great answer is that there is not a paint color called carrot. At least not that I know of. As a painting instructor, though, it is my delight to show how a carrot, a simple carrot, can be painted using mixtures of red and yellow or even cadmium orange if you have it, mixed on the palette or wet-in-wet with a little purple in the shadow, a tiny bit of pale color at the tip and a nice mix of blues and yellows and greens for the frothy carrot tops. My palette is rarely pristine but usually I have enough clear color on it at the start of a painting session so that I can get myself in a good mood just by looking at it and anticipating what I will use.