Limited Palette

While working on this painting I just couldn’t make up my mind where I wanted to go with it. I ended up changing my palette of colors several times because I wasn’t getting the color balance I was looking for. The picture I was working from was taken on a gloomy winter day and that wasn’t helping, so I started experimenting with different color combinations on the canvas. This is really not a good thing to do on such a large canvas because it was both frustrating and wasteful. Next time I’ll do a small color study before I begin a large painting.
The palette of colors I finally decided on were burnt sienna, Prussian blue, cadmium red, cadmium yellow med., ivory black, and titanium white. This limited palette gave me every thing I needed. I really tried to stay loose on this painting using all hogs hair brushes and painting wet on wet. I just love how those Russian impressionists make it look so easy. If I keep working at it real hard I just might get it by the time I’m ninety.