Purple Palms

Diane Mannion, PURPLE PALMS, 8x6" oil

As a class exercise this week, had my students paint palms from black and white reference photos I took.  Asked them to paint with colors that they would not ordinarily think of using like purple, orange, pink!  Instead of the usual green green green, it was an anti-green day, with green used only as an accent.   A wonderful way to play with color and imagination.  I often tell students, "If in doubt, smear it out.  And if all else fails... use PURPLE!"  

This colorful experiment also worked well with my Heady Portrait studio.  We had blue Liz Taylor, pink Charlie Chaplin, and red-headed Elvis.  While students played with colors, they almost forgot they were doing portraits and created some of the best work of the year!