Tricks of the Watercolor Trade

In the window of the pigment store where I worked part-time there were banks of colored pigments.I've been wanting to record them. Then come home, match the colors with paint.
 

 Match the pigments on my palette, which is an old enamel kitchen tray found on Ebay.

Match the colors swatches on a test sheet of paper.
The next step is to make a painting...

My watercolor teacher, David Dewey used to say,
the painting is 1st of all set up on your palette.
Get your colors down there.
I used to take a ton of pictures of his palette mixings.

Then put it down on the paper.

I'd love to select a few of these bottles and make a painting from just those colors - what's known as doing a "limited palette" painting.

Another Dewey trick was to use your dirty water to put the washes down on the paper. It's easier to see where the water is on the white paper if there are bits of pigment in the wash. For most watercolor painters painting with clean water is like religion!
A watercolor paintbox I'd love to own. A client of Wendy Brandes designed this using a poison ring bezel!Claus Oldenburg of the Spoonbridge and Cherry sculpture, said
he does most of his idea sketching at the dinner table.
Wouldn't this paintbox ring be a tremendous help?

Paris Grey Skies

Paris is a grey city - overcast skies, grey cobbled streets with grey Baron Haussmann buildings. Citizens dressed in grey neutrals with just a dash of color at the neck. Why is this a good thing? Because grey acts as the perfect foil for brilliant colors. Grey makes colors sing. We adore Ladurée's pale green, Hermés' Orange, Hediard's red, Fauchon's hot pink. Strong colors radiate against this serene grey backdrop.

It's color basic theory. 

And why do we wander aimlessly down Paris' streets? 

Lois Swirnoff explains in THE COLOR OF CITIES;

Elegant, gracious and stylish, the great lady reveals her distinction facially. The aesthetic is one of dignified composure. Close range colors in these facades impart a sense of unity, rather than commercial competition (like New York). Restraint and refinement is the urban message.

Par hasard /by chance I passed this art student sketching in the Jardins du Luxembourg. Tout en gris. Note how GREEN the greens look surrounded by all that gris (grey). 

 Picasso of pastry, Pierre Hermé uses pearl grey for his pretty boxes. THE COLOR OF CITIES is a fav book because it explains why we love Paris, Rome, Venice, or any extraordinary city. For reasons usually never considered like longitude, angles of light, shadow shapes. Paris' low-contrast light is softer, more atmospheric, more moody and best for still life painting. Thanks to overcast grey skies. a tout à l'heure

These grey cheeses are aged in charcoal. They look like corrugated cardboard left in a cellar (they rested on rope and were turned periodically). But on a tartine (slice) of fresh baguette..YUM

Look in any Parisien shop window. Close range colors make for harmony, balance, calm. My friend, Christiane, is outfitted in her crazy, grey LILITH jacket. Note the red lips 💋 at the neck.