I’ve been wanting to expland and explore color for a long time. It seems like the time has come. I bought a new empty palette and no funds to fill it. If you have any idea of how pricey good watercolors can be, be aware that living in Mexico can make what is hard even harder when it comes to getting quality art materials. It’s getting easier, but believe me, it’s still a struggle. Over a year and a half ago I bought Graham’s watercolor collection and got sick without a chance to open them up. I forgot about them. Well, I decided to look through my stash and see if there were any remnants of colors I could scrape together to make the new palette I wanted. I spent two days rescuing tiny bits of paint and putting them in the new palette and also discovered the missing Graham colors. Turns out they are wonderful. Hurray Portland, OR. So here’s what I put together which I am exploring. The idea is to use only or mostly granulating colors. Use no greens, build your own (I cheated and allowed myself Grahams’ Veridian because I love it so. I built cooler and warmer tones a tube of Veridian only. So, here’s what I put together as a beginning palette.
This palette makes an amazing difference. Here is the first stage of a street scene done in granulating and mixing colors. Already I can see a complete transformation of how I work. It’s pretty cool and encouraging to make a change and actually see a difference.
Painting Mexico 
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