writing from the Mani, Greece.
I used to sometimes paint on holiday. Now being away is an opportunity to paint more than at home. Years ago I sometimes went away without paints and then had to ransack local shops for whatever was available. One year it was children’s wax crayons, and a collage of bits found on the beach stuck on to a bit of cardboard box. I quite like rummaging and beachcombing and making do. There was also a small roller that I found I a hardware shop – for painting behind radiators, I think – that turned out ideal for giving an idea of mountains in watercolour pictures.
Nowadays I carefully pack acrylics, a palette of warm and cool blues, reds and yellows, plus titanium white, and this year, raw umber (for the black it makes with ultramarine blue). I know I can mix all the colours I will need from these. What I don’t know, in a new place, is exactly what those colours will be.
The old Greek olive tree in the first painting used ultramarine blue, alizarin crimson, a little cadmium red, and cadmium yellow deep. The second painting happened when I used up the colours left on the palette, with an inch wide brush. No deliberate technique, just trying to cover the page with what was left. The result quite pleased me and has some interesting areas that I may develop later.
What amused me most though was realising that the colours I will need to paint the ruin of the olive oil factory are exactly these. The colours of old concrete and brick, with plants pushing up between the cracks, constitute a kind of negative colour space of the trees.
