I learned long ago that my creativity flowed best when I was comfortable in my surroundings and with my materials and tools. Sometimes I’ve had to solve a few problems to achieve that, but for several years now I seem to be painting with fewer frustrations.
One main problem with watercolors is to keep the paint clean and bright and I always found the traditional watercolor palettes and butcher trays defeated that purpose. Since I paint mostly 40″ x 60″ watercolors, I needed a larger amount of paint mixed up at a time. The frustration of having to keep mixing more paint washes finally led to my using a muffin tin for a palette.
THE PERFECT SOLUTION
I sprayed a new tin with high gloss white enamel in several thin coats and then added plastic cups that I purchased at a cake decorating shop to hold the different watercolor paints. I’m able to mix small amounts of paint on the flat surface of the tin and larger amounts in the cups. The painted surface of the tin is easily wiped clean. The cups all have lids, so I add water and snap on the lid when I’m through painting. I have enough of the cups that I rotate the different colors depending on my needs for each painting.
The current palette of colors is for the landscape I’m working on at the moment. The painting below is the one I completed last week. It is a 29″ x 41″ watercolor.
