Trish Hurley on her Palette

Trish Hurley painting en plein air

Trish Hurley painting en plein air

My palette is, and has been, the same for the most part for over 30 years.  Every now and then I add something or other, but mainly it is called a traditional limited palette.  It's 4 colors, the primaries, red, yellow and blue, and titanium white and every color is mixed from these.  It's also what I advocate in my classes so that students don't have muddy colors.  There is a rule of thumb, that you shouldn't mix more than 3 colors, which is generally true because it almost always turns to be the same “mud".

My primaries are Cadmium Red Medium, Cadmium Yellow Light, and Ultramarine Blue...every now and I use a split palette which is of each primaries but generally most paintings are done with the 4 colors.

The ground color of the canvas is generally painted a red tone and the overall tones of certain paintings vary due to plein air or in the studio  (plain air being outside which is brighter and colors are applied darker).