For the month of March, I challenged myself to paint 30 6×8 landscapes using only a limited palette of Utrecht paints. I further limited myself to painting local landscapes from my own references. Going into this, I knew I would be challenged by my inability to paint convincing rocks and the very real struggle to paint the particular shade of red rock in the area.

On the whole, I don’t think I struggle a whole lot with color mixing anymore, but there is always room for improvement. I have always used a palette of at least 10 colors so it was an interesting idea to try out a limited palette of only 5 colors including white and black. Included in the Utrecht Color Theory set were Titanium White, Zinc Yellow Hue, Quinacridone Red, Phthalo Blue, and Ivory Black. I’ll be reviewing the paint itself in the following post.

In hindsight, pairing the limited palette with this challenge was an excellent choice on my part. Despite some initial struggles with the paints, I was able to master their full potential range of mixes. I’m still not a fan of the yellow included in the Utrecht Color Theory set, but I think I made it work to the best of my ability.

While the first part of this challenge seemed to fly by, I really hit a wall toward the end. Work started to pick up, family get togethers piled on, the pull of spring weather got me outside, and I felt less and less inspired by my pool of reference photos. I had tried to save some that I was really interested in for the end, but by the time I got to the end I wasn’t interested in them. Go figure. I could have printed more, but with everything going on, I never got around to it. I also could have worked from my computer, but I prefer printed photos to a screen. I spend so much time on my computer or phone anyway, I try to make my painting time screen free.

While working on this challenge, I came across a call to artists for an art competition which my paintings fit the criteria for. I quickly framed a couple paintings and submitted them to the museum. “Intimidation” and “Rev 22-20” are framed and on display at the John Wesley Powell River History Museum in Green River, Utah from April 4 – April 22, 2019. If you’re in the area, come check it out. I’m sure the show will have some excellent art on display. This is my first art competition since college so I’m really excited to have found a local opportunity like this.

All in all, I think most of the paintings were successful. I really enjoyed using a wipe out tool to create texture in the bushes and grasses in many of the paintings. I used it so much in fact that I wore it down to the point of needing a new one. I also mainly used one brush for all of these paintings which was a #4 flat. Towards the end, it would’ve been nice to use a bigger brush, but I didn’t have one handy.

On my final painting, I finally broke out my liner brush. I only recently purchased my first one and I wish I had gotten one years ago! A liner brush is far more effective at creating perfectly thin long lines than those teeny tiny round brushes I used in the past with frustrating results. I gave up on those tiny rounds a while ago and have been creating my long thin lines with just a flat, but the liner brush is so much easier and looks better.

I fully expected some people to give me crap about using reference photos instead of painting plein air, but it hasn’t happened yet. I personally paint from life or photos equally and don’t see the problem with using photos. I’ve heard many arguments on how photos distort and flatten the image, which I admit they do to a certain extent, but that doesn’t discount it as a valuable tool. An artist can alter and adjust a photo as easily as they would when painting from life and are an excellent tool. I typically paint at night when the kids are in bed and my work for the day is done which makes photos necessary. Also, I tend to sunburn very easily so I’m not too enticed by the idea of plein air.