Red, Yellow, Blue And Frisket

I like painting with the earth tones. A couple of years ago I decided to try painting just using the primary colors of red, yellow and blue. Other than many, many years ago, probably back in high school, I believe this painting is the first using just those colors. I was pleased with the results. It has a freshness about it, clean. Even the dark tones have a bit of color in them. This is probably the most colorful landscape I have ever painted.
I found this experiment to be very useful for me, it gave me a stronger sense of color and the mixing of colors. Since then I have included the limited pallet in my beginning watercolor workshops. My students have benefited from trying this approach in their paintings.

Frisket is a masking fluid. It is applied in an area to keep paint away. A "true watercolor" doesn't contain white paint. The white is the paper. A watercolorist can "paint around" leaving the paper white or use frisket to mask off areas. A third technique is to scrape in the damp painted area to expose the paper underneath. I used a lot of frisket in this painting, experimenting not only with "saving" the whites, but also using it to "save" other colors. The most helpful thing I learned in the experimenting was to thin the frisket with water prior to its application, making it so much easier to apply.
Many of my paintings are made up of "elements," reference material images combined together to create a total image. This painting is a combination of a barn from Kentucky and an antique mower from Harbor Village in Grove, Oklahoma.