Limited Plein Air Palette- Packing Light

[impressionist2]

One of the biggest deterrents for artists to "get out there", is the initial packing and unpacking and setup. I mean if someone would just come over to my house pack up everything I need to paint in the field, transport it to the perfect location and set it all up, I'd be happy to show up!:D

However, that's my job and so one problem that comes up is how limited can I make my palette ( take the least amount of tubes with me) and still have enough beautiful color mixing possibilites on hand.


Two colors I have to take right off are thalo green and aliz. crimson. They are my background colors and really pop those foreground lights.


My question is, Which colors do you absolutely have to have in the field? Which colors can you leave home? Tell me your version of a good working limited palette to cover painting both landscape and people plein air. Thanks.

Renee

[blondheim12]

Renee,
A good limited Florida palette to me is:

Naples Yellow
Yellow Ochre
Sap Green
Thalo Blue
French Ultramarine Blue
Curelean Blue
Red Iron oxide
Titanium White or Lead White
Cadmium Yellow Pale

Love,
Linda

[LarrySeiler]

well...mine Renee is usually always shown in my WC demo's...with the pigments laid out. IN fact, my easel is a half-box, and from that the largest painting I've done afield alla prima has been an 18"x 24"...

the palette is split and therefore smaller for a halfbox...

I put out a warm and cool variant of each primary; plus Viridian since I have struggled to mix yet the perfect green that sometimes I see outdoors. Naples Yellow, which sometimes I use as a substitute for white. I sometimes use flake white (lead), but more often than not titanium.

Larry

[walden]

Some of my best work outdoors I've done with only cadmium lemon, permanent alizarin, ultramarine, viridian, and titanium white. Usually, though, I also use cerulean, cadmium yellow light, and cadmium red light or Winsor red.

[impressionist2]

Thanks everyone. Here's what I took with me yesterday and I didn't miss not having any color I needed:

Thalo green
viridian
Chromium Oxide Green
ultra blue
cerulean
alizarin crimson
cad. red
Yellow Ochre
cad. yellow
Titanium white

Viridian always bugged me because of it's intensity and Danacolor oil pigment is Really intense. However, It was the exact shade of the park benches yesterday, so that worked out fine!:D

Renee

[LDianeJohnson]

Lowest denominator I use if there's little room or I have to keep the weight down is:

Cobalt Blue
Cad Yellow Med
Aliz. Crimson
Vermillion
Cad Red Med
Viridian
Tit. White

Next grouping adds (which is my normal palette):

Lemon or Cad Yellow Lt
Permanent Rose
Emerald Green
Pthalo Blue

Next grouping adds:

Diox. Purple
Cerulean Blue
Ultramarine Blue
Pthalo Green
Cad Orange, etc.

I always recommend taking the basic colors needed for your chosen terrain. I would start with different original colors if painting in Arizona than if in the North East for instance. Test what works, then try to reduce by one tube at a time of whatever you can make using other tubes. As you've probably discovered, some colors just cannot be made from others so just pop those in the box or you'll really miss them.

Diane