On a retreat to Prince Edward County I ran into Petre's Point.  This was a result of talking to The Bald Photographer in his studio.  A very interesting fellow from Wales now living in Cherry Valley.  He had some wonderful black and white shots of the area.  He also applauded my working from life as opposed to photographs.  "Train the eye" he said.  How true.

Petre's Point, 16x20, Oil on Canvas

This is a great little cove facing the full brunt of a Lake Ontario storm.  On this day it was calm and just right for black flies.  here we have the problem of a back lit subject showing the cliff's colours in shadow.  What colours were on display?  Well, the full spectrum as usual, if you can relax and scan to see them, then represent them from mixing on your palette.

Here I used the usual #12 bristle filbert and the base palette of Ultramarine Blue, Viridian, Cadmium Yellow Light, Alizarin, and Titanium white.

Back in the studio I sometimes add pigments to the standard palette.  Recently these have included, Cadmium Yellow Deep, Cadmium Red Middle, either Cobalt or Cerulean Blue, and Mineral violet.  I might add one or more of these at any one time.  Although I use some earth tones from time to time - Transparent Red Oxide or Naples Yellow, I prefer to mix these for more robust colours.