Alla Prima Preparation Demonstration

Sometimes I find that setting up a still life is the most complicated part of painting. Trying to find the right combination of textures, colors, surfaces etc. can drive me bats. Then there is the composition. For whatever reason I have a tendency to keep my compositions simple. Perhaps there is beauty in simplicity, who knows. Well once all of the still life objects are set up and a pleasing composition is arrived upon, I work to set up the easel. A toned linen canvas is placed upon the easel and the palette is prepared. Time is taken to prepare the palette and as you can see in the pictures, lots of paint is mixed. After the palette is prepped, a rough sketch is made upon the canvas and once the drawing is place then the painting process begins.

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Understanding the DuMond palette-A brief tutorial

Many of my students ask me, "what is this palette that you are teaching me?" To which I reply "a palette that my teacher's teacher's teacher developed some time ago long before you and I were born." Of course this explanation fetches some curious looks, but in truth, the palette has been handed down through the generations from teacher to student. Fortunately it was handed down to me and happily I am handing it down to a future generation of aspiring artists. At first glance, the prismatic palette appears to be of a complex nature with many colors. As shown above it proffers an array of a multitude of manufactured and premixed colors laid out in strings according to values. The top string of colors are manufactured pigments ranging from white, yellow, orange, red, blue, and black. The rest of the palette is comprised of pre-mixed colors in eight equal steps of light gray to dark gray, eight equal steps of light blue to dark blue and eight equal steps of li...

DuMond Prismatic Landscape Palette

Back in March of 2018 I decided to recreate the DuMond Prismatic Landscape Palette Chart and donate it to the Ridgewood Art Institute. That’s me above in the video creating the new chart. The original chart that we used was made by Joe Paquet. As you can see it was heavily used and covered in paint swatches. This made it difficult to discern the original values and colors that lay underneath. The new chart is much easier to read and will provide many years of use. It was nice to get a nod by former Board Member Ed Horvath of the Ridgewood Art Institute for my contribution to furthering the Frank Vincent DuMond, Arthur F. Maynard, and John P. Osborne legacy at the Ridgewood Art Institue.

Tubing Your Own Colors

When I first started painting my teacher introduced me to tubing colors. Being a new student I did not quite understand the benefits of tubing my own colors and thought the mixing and tubing process to be fun while being labor intensive. Later on when I put those tubed colors to use did I realized just how beneficial it was to have an abundant supply of color on hand readily available. There was no longer the need to be constantly mixing up color hither and thither. All I had to do was reach into my paint box, open a tube of color, squeeze out some paint onto my palette and start painting. Now I am introducing the concept of tubing colors to my students. It is a great kick to watch them take out their supply of empty paint tubes, pigments, palette knives and see the amazement on their faces as the pigments get swirled together into large toffee colored mounds of paint that morph into flesh tones that rival makeup foundation products. When I propos...

Diana K. Gibson

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