For Tracy Michele, who always sees them first.
"I wish you to consider that I have been speaking of what I wished to accomplish in these pictures, rather than what I have done; for I may have failed in these efforts. I should, nevertheless, be much gratified if you could see them ...."
- Thomas Cole, letter dated May 1828

Sunday, February 27, 2011

imagine my surprise



On a technical note, I recently discovered that I had mislabeled a color in my 8-color watercolor palette (which has since increased to 12 colors). Imagine my surprise.

This will be of interest only to other painters, perhaps, but since I specified the colors in a previous post and even went so far as to give their manufacturers' product numbers, I need to point out that the red is not Schmincke's Alizarin Crimson (which I had mislabeled as #353, besides calling it the wrong name) but, rather, their Permanent Carmine #353. Their Alizarin Crimson is given the #357 and is a very beautiful color, but not light-fast (being derived from plant material). This is one of the few instances where I make the jump to a modern substitute. It is pointless to pass up an obvious improvement that will help ensure the physical stability of my work.