This one was awesome fun!  I chose the gamut (colors) on site which consists of yellow/orange, blue/violet and blue/green.  With my normal warm/cool primary colors palette I probably would have dipped into each color.  The limited gamut palette kept me in check and I was still able to achieve the mood I was shooting for (a partly cloudy colorful San Diego fall morning).  8x10 - Oil.

ARTISTS RECEPTION
There will be a artist reception on Friday, November 7th from 5 to 7pm for my next showing at Bread & Cie Cafe.  I know it's kind of an odd day and hour but I hope you can drop by. Bread and Cie will provide food and there will be alcoholic and non alcoholic beverages provided. The cafe is located in Hillcrest at 350 University Avenue.  The show will hang on November 5th and will continue thru the first week of December.  There will be 12 paintings total, all  new, including my last few posts on the this blog.  Would be nice to see you so come on out if you are able to!

Continuing the gamut masking method by James Gurney I tried this Donut Nocturne painting.  I used orange, violet and blue for this gamut mask.  Working from a photo I can see how the gamut mask can be a very useful tool.  It really helped to decide on a set color scheme and to not be so literal in trying to get the actual color in the photo.  This oil painting measures 8x10.

This was a fun one to paint here in my neighborhood.  For this one I used yellow ochre, transparent red oxide and ultramarine blue.  I like the sunlight and shadow conveyed in the this one and to me it fells like early morning light in a calm and tranquil alley.  I normally don't use transparent red oxide on warm/cool palette.  I was surprised how strong it is, like burnt sienna on steroids.  A little go a long way.  I'll be going back to this palette for sure.  This one measures 8x10. 

This 8x10 was painted at Cabrillo National Monument in San Diego on the Pt. Loma peninsula.  Amazing how much color you can get with only three colors.  In this case I used ivory black, titanium white and burnt sienna.  It was a great lesson in making the most of a very limited palette, especially in terms of subtlety and tone.  Less is more in this case and I am looking forward to using the palette again.  In the small time I have switched over to try a variety of limited palettes I am very pleased with the results.  The last few paintings definitely have a different feel to them and by default each palette I have used creates a natural harmony.  Looking forward to exploring this more.

Hillcrest Mustang
8x10 - Oil

Here's one I'm pretty excited about.  I started experimenting with the gamut mask method from the teachings of James Gurney.  In this one I made red my dominant color and used greyed out blue and grey out green as the subordinate colors.  This limited palette helped me to keep the painting unified and furthermore helped to set a mood to the painting that I really like.  Though painted on site, the colors I chose were limited (only three) so I couldn't match exactly all the colors before me, I only got as close as I could.  Doing more with less in my opinion.  It was a huge departure from the warm/cool primary palette I normally use.  The car owner was super nice, he plugged the meter and didn't move his car so that I could finish the painting. 

This 8x10 plein air was painted at Balboa Park.  Just up the street is the Laurel Street Bridge that leads into the park.  Trying to inject mood and colors schemes I normally don't think about or use in my recent efforts.  After hanging the Benchmark Brewery show I realized a few things.  When all the paintings were hanging on the wall all the paintings pretty much looked the same in regards to shadow colors, sky colors, saturation of colors, values, etc.  Though the paintings did read nicely from afar and up close, I felt that there really wasn't any variety in terms of color, mood, values, etc.  So I need to work on that and hopefully this painting is the first of many down that road.  So far it's been a positive challenge trying different colors schemes and limited palettes.  Looking forward to posting these efforts.