The chili peppers on painting #2 for the Lessons from the Spider Woman series is painted with natural cinnabar and some madder, heightened at the very end with flake white on the highlights. The stems are a simple mixture of yellow ochre and black, which makes a dazzling array of greens. Right at the finish, heighten with a little white on the lightest lights.
I consistently find it amazing and gratifying how just a few colors on my palette will do what I want. For years, I have practiced the ancient art of placement, Feng Shui, in all aspects of my life, including my painting. A good friend of mine, Judy Zimmerman, is a master consultant, and we have spent many long hours discussing techniques.
One of the most important tenets of the ancient Chinese practice is the importance of decluttering your life to help focus, clear your thoughts, and make ready for new beginnings. Somehow this concept fits into my painting when I am doing one of my pigment projects especially. The mere act of elimination declutters and makes color mixture choices easy and uncomplicated.
Try six or seven colors plus black and white sometime. I make an old master palette with yellow ochre, cinnabar, black and white. Black looks remarkably bluish when mixed with a little white. As I mentioned, when you mix the yellow ochre with black, you get green shades. Substitute blue with black, and you have a basic Red, Yellow, Blue palette all set to go with almost no fuss.
