a messy happy accident

I posted recently about loving those little ribbons of color on my palette. Some of you are curious what they are so I'll name them starting on the left: Viridian, Ultra Marine, Cobalt, Terra Rosa, Transparent Oxide Red, Alizarin Crimson, Cad Red, Cad Orange, Yellow Ochre, Cad Yellow Med, Cad Yellow light, Cad Yellow Lemon and White. In the lower left corner is a blob of Liquin and in the lower right corner is my new favorite, Holbein Indigo.

Now for my messy happy accident story: See the painting in the foamcore holder? Notice that it is not held in by anything except the slight backward angle of the panel holder. I was working on black board and had just laid in the white only. Then, for some reason I can't remember, I decided to move the easel so I grabbed the tripod and lifted. SPLAT! This little painting fell face down onto my palette. I wish I had a picture of my horror stricken face. All I could think of was that my beautiful little ribbons were smashed! Once I pried the panel up off the sticky paint, I used a palette knife to scrap off the blobs of color that were all along the lower edge of the painting and plopped them back onto the palette. Then, I took a Viva paper towel and wiped as much color as I could off the painting.

Voila! the colors just happened to be exactly where I needed them! See the painting a little further along below.

It probably wouldn't have occurred to me to rub paint onto my painting with a paper towel for the soft reflection in the water but this happy accident worked well. I have now quit using the foam core and have the painting attached as the Open Box M was designed to be used!