Chocolate Treat

Oil on 5"x7" Gessobord
I have been having some trouble painting lately. My palette gets messy, I get confused about what colors I'm mixing. I tried 3 or 4 times to paint this little dessert cake, but kept scraping it away. I started to think maybe it just wasn't an interesting subject in the first place.
I have a book by Kevin Macpherson from the library. In it he describes using just 3 or 4 colors and white to start with on your palette, and mixing whatever other colors you need from them, lightening them with white, dulling them with their compliments. I was having fun mixing puddles of pretty colors on my palette from yellow, red and blue and white. I've done this before, but not in a long time. I guess I need a little time getting back to the basics for a while. Once I saw all the beautiful array of mixtures I made, I wanted to paint something with them. So, I painted my little cake over again. And, I think having all those colors already to go on my palette made the difference. I had so much fun. It reminded me a bit of using pastels. All the colors are right there to look at and choose from.

Also, I've been really liking alot of the landscape paintings I've been discovering on some different blogs. It really has me inspired to try it myself. So, today I drove down to the lake and took some pictures of the water and beach. It was the first warmish day of the spring. I didn't even need a jacket!! So, one of these days when I feel brave enough, I'll try a painting of one of my pictures.