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American icon/more useful colors

Iz thiiz your Twiinkey?  Apologies to Inspector Clouseau, and a nod to David Boles, for this misappropriation.  As with the Donettes,
this is a three day painting, high noon, and bless them one and all, those Twinkies didn't lose a crumb or a bit of creamy filling (what is that stuff?) in the process.  Very commendable of a model.

What most interested me tho' was the palette that added up to "cobalt blue glass plate". There was only a wee bit of cobalt blue any where on the menu, I leaned most heavily on ultramarine, mitigated by royal blue, cobalt violet, lilac, permanent mauve, and this screaming pink transparent color that goes by the name of "Rose violet"  (which makes it sound very demure, but don't be fooled...) by Shin Han.  I seem to be squeezing that tube an awful lot recently- another useful, if unlikely color.  The "Red fish, blue fish"/vermillion snapper painting of a couple of posts ago made extremely liberal if not downright extravagant use thereof.

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marigolds with useful colors

I wasn't intending to paint these little marigolds-  they were the last in my garden.  We'd had a few light frosts, and the killing frost was just around the corner, so as I cleaned out the beds to keep them from turning into muck, I plucked these three, put them into a little, horribly tarnished (I must confess) bud vase, and brought them up to the studio just to relish their cheeriness in the Face of It All.
There, sitting next to a Wasabi pea can that holds brushes, they turned into a still life.  Now mind you, I'm not horribly good at flowers.  My more or less organic approach to painting fails me there; I either want to draw them, or revert to a grand Flemish take on anything floral, and I can't seem to shake it. Still, I'm pleased that these are so marigoldish even if it happened to be design by accident.  If I were to hark to Whistler, I'd have to throw out the painting right now.
As an aside, a note on the tubes of paint that found their way unto the board; one of the most useful colors I can think of, Art Spectrum's Australian Red Gold is arrayed there.  It, and its sibling, the Australian Green Gold are worth exploring if you haven't done so yet- they are transparent  colors that just seem to hit a note that I can't mix.  While you're checking out Art Spectrum's palette, mosey over to the Lilac as well.  It's an opaque, and amoung it's many uses, it's unbeatable mixed with Grumbacher's Nickel Titanate Yellow if you want to make a bang-up silvery grey.  Just lovely.

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red fish, blue fish

  Here they are, the red fish at least.  The blue fish are hanging out in "Larger Works" (and over the piano!  In a really incredible frame. More on frames later...)  I can't decide which pleases me more to look at, tho' I must admit that the mackerel are more suited for bait than eating despite what gorgeous fish they are.  Can't have everything.
As an aside, I was really aware of the Provincetown factor whilst working on the Snapper, but such was the light- a Henry Hensche delight. (thank-you again, Tom Moore!) the other thing I noted when working this piece was that I was able to use the term "vermillion" without referring to a tube of paint- how great is that?

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one fish, two fish

 actually, vermillion snapper.  And yes, I am painting from a photo I snapped, because setting this up as a still life in the workroom just wouldn't have done.  As an aside, these fish were fresh caught off of a wreck in the Outer Banks of N.C.  Not quite as good an eating fish as a Red Snapper, but close, close.  I cooked up one of these guys within hours of taking the reference shot for the painting. 

I like all the color variations on a fish.  I like the way the light reflects off of their surface, and the refractive quality of the scales.  All I can say is that it's a luxury to have a fisherman who regularly brings home beautiful sea fruit for still lives- the colors change (not for the better) so quickly.

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