Home Forums The Learning Center Color Theory and Mixing Andrew Wyeth’s Colour Palette

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  • #990813
    sabana
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        I am a big admirer of Andrew Wyeth’s work. And his work using egg tempera as a medium is sublime. But I can’t find anywhere at all what colours he used. I know its a very muted limited palette so it will be quite simple. I’ve seen mentioned black brown yellow ochre and white. But I would love to know which colours he actually used for his work. Thanks for any help.

        #1185697
        wdaniels
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            Here’s a photo taken in his studio. I can see terra verte (which I’ve also heard him mention in interviews), maybe cobalt blue, a sienna, and maybe cadmium? yellow. Not sure what the reds are. You can probably simulate his palette with umbers, ochres, and siennas, earthy greens such as terra verte, a couple of blues (maybe cobalt and ultramarine), black, white, and brighter yellows and reds (cadmiums) when needed. I have to say though, that I never dealt with powdered pigments, so I’m not sure about safety issues in dealing with pigments that may be toxic such as cadmiums.

            #1185696
            sabana
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                Thanks. Thats really really helpful:). I was considering using watercolour tubes to start with instead of the powdered pigments from a safety aspect. But looking at that picture he seems to have more colours than I thought. But its a great help. Cheers!

                #1185698
                wdaniels
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                    You’re welcome. I was just going through my Wyeth books. The only thing I could find relating to his palette was this quote about tempera: “I loved the quality of the colors: the earth colors, the terra verde, the ochers, reds, the Indian reds and the blue reds are superb”. Not sure what he meant by “blue reds”. In another place he talks about using alizarin crimson as an underpainting for the greens in his painting “Pine Baron”. I think his palette was earth-tone based, but he used whatever he had to in order to get the effect he wanted.

                    #1185695
                    Anonymous

                        maybe he is grouping indian red with mars violet, caput mortuum? those are two earth reds that lean violet, or as some might say, lean towards blue.

                        I don’t know what his palette was but I have seen and closely inspected more Wyeths in person than any other famous artist I have ever viewed in museums. I live very near where the Wyeths lived and many times, I have visited the two museums where so many of his works reside. I must think that the earths were his mainstays, the ochres, umbers, siennas, black. I could be wrong but I surely would bet on the earths.

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