No Favorite Color

For some reason, we are supposed to have a favorite color. When asked, I always answer "blue".

It is easy, popular, and there is always a choice of blue if I need to make a decision. But honestly, I don't have a favorite color. I love a certain saturation, or hue, but most importantly I love how colors work with each other. And I absolutely LOVE how color can wake me up and change my painting.

When I work, I like to mix up a large amount of color to use in multiple paintings. This usually involves trying to "use up" a tube of paint that I want to get rid of because I haven't found a use for it yet. Inevitably, I fall in love with the color in a new mixture. That is just what happened to me today.

I find phalo blue to be too much for me. It is too powerful- bright and potent- it dominates a mixture so quickly. If I am looking to add a touch of blue, I immediately regret grabbing phalo. So this morning I decided to use up a small bottle of fluid phalo green shade. In hopes of taming the beast, I decided to start with some mustard yellow. (I think it is raw sienna that I had added to a bottle in hopes of using it more.) To my delight, it was just the thing. A lovely muted army (maybe olive) green. It is nothing like my usual colors, and so as I added it to painting after painting, it was just the color I needed. Bright sweet pink? Bam! looks great with green. Saturated yellow? Bam! looks great with green. Grey? suddenly the green looks deep and bright. Just the thing the painting needed.

Art is a mind game, and as artists we need to keep ahead and find ways to open up new possibilities. Color is a fabulous way to do that.