Painting with a limited palette

A different painting video caught my eye on YouTube yesterday. In this video the painter (Marco) paints a figure over 3 hours to a standard that I would call ‘excellent.’ He does so using just three colours – purple, orange, and green, along with back and white.

Central to his technique was his use of a wet palette. I have one myself, but I’ve never used it. In fact, here’s a picture:

There may or may not be a slight layer of dust on that box. However as the Australian summer draws ever nearer with its typical temperature of ‘so hot you will forget what it is to be cool’ a wet palette is quite tempting.

It would require a change in how I approach painting, but as I paint through my collection I find I’m happy to try new things. Wet palettes seem very good for keeping your paint from drying before you can apply it, something that frequently happens to me, especially during summer.