Hello 

Welcome to the FLOAT-YOUR-PIGMENT Newsletter #135, Holbein Greens

December is here and I don't feel quite ready for winter or the holidays yet. Last weekend it started to snow and the freezing weather sudden appeared and I just then started looking for my winter coat. I think it is time to start thinking about my workshop, demonstrations and a paint party in Florida come January. I have been told that some of you are already signing up, thank you, thank you..... can't wait to see you there!

Did you hear about Pantone's color of the year is UltraViolet! What a great year 2018 is going to be with Ultra Violet being the color of the year. This morning I woke up to a Wisconsin Public Radio show talking about the Pantone color of the year. If you want something to listen to about the new color of the year, you can listen to it HERE. With Violet being my favorite color, this week's newsletter is covering a color I don't have on my palette, Green. However, after testing all of Holbein Greens this weekend I think I will have to put a few on my palette. Read below which greens I like.

This Thursday, December 14th The Lakes Region Watercolor Guild will have their December meeting where the meeting is split into 2 parts. The first part will be me demonstrating for an hour and the second part will be the members painting cards for the Camp Quality Foundation, which helps kids with cancer.
I have decided to demonstrate on hot press which is something I paint on in my studio but have never used to demonstrate with. This should be fun or a complete disaster....stop on by to see what happens. LRWG.ORG

BeckerArt Gallery/Studio/Classroom Report: Thanks to Craigslist, Offer-up and the Re-Store, I have come across a lot of things that I had on my need to have list for the gallery. This last week I found kitchen cabinets for the partial kitchen I will be installing in the gallery. I sure do love to resale shop and find deals on things I can use but can't afford to buy new.

Yes to Class at the Civic Center Libertyville, Thursday Dec. 14th
Yes to Class at The Antioch Fine Arts Foundation, Thursday Dec. 14th

Greens have never made it to my palette because I have always mixed my greens with Quinacridone Gold and blue. Different blues to get different shades of green. 

Last July I was at Holbein in Vermont and somehow I must have bought a tube of Bamboo Green by mistake. I had it in one of my 6 palettes last week while demonstrating and I thought it was a different color. When I used it I thought it was a dark blue but it turned out that I mixed it with a crimson color and it made an rich dark colored black. I then tried it by itself and I thought it was an amazing color. I then wondered what color it was, so I contacted Holbein and asked them to send me all their greens so I could test them all and see which green this was that I accidentally put on my palette. It turned out to be Bamboo Green.

The video below shows all the greens that Holbein carrys and after testing them I now have a few new favorite colors.

Color greens I now will put on my palette

2 greens I already had on my palette

I've come to the realization that I need a lot bigger palette. Why should we limit ourslelves to the amount of colors we use. I'm going to start using a bunch of new colors to make painting much more fun and exciting. Who doesn't like trying new colors and finding some new favorite ones along the way.