Marc Dalessio

My ultra-portable cigar box palette.

I’ve been asked a few times lately what my palette is, so I thought I’d put a post about it.

Over the years I’ve whittled down the palette I was taught to fewer and fewer colors. At present I use:

• Lead or Titanium white (I prefer the handling of lead, but I’m currently using titanium for health and environmental reasons).

• Cadmium Yellow from Michael Harding (or I’ll grind my own Cad Yellow light from Zecchi).

• Zecchi’s Roman Ochre

• Vermilion, hand-ground from Doak. Though I sometimes use the Zecchi one outdoors.

• Cadmium Red Medium, either Harding’s or hand-ground from Zecchi.

• Alizarin, either hand-ground or I was using Doak’s Florentine Lake for a while too.

• Cerulean Blue, $70 a pop from Old Holland, or hand-ground if I need a lot for a large painting.

• Ultramarine Deep from Old Holland.

• Manganese Blue from Old Holland.

• Cobalt Blue, either Old Holland or Harding.

I also use hand-ground Ivory Black when painting indoors, and I’ve tried to find a use for it outside but can’t. I know some landscape painters use it for clouds but I can never see the point.

The palette I started with included Naples Yellow, an earth red (Pozzuoli, English…etc), and Veridian. I have also used high chroma oranges and purples for specific projects with orange trees, irises and such.

My cigar box palette.

I just started using a good quality manganese blue again after a 4 year break. I remember finding it essential when traveling but of less use here in Italy. This summer however, there have been a couple of times when I’ve really struggled to get the exact hue I needed. Using the manganese for the last two weeks has made mixing some colors so much easier. I see more colors just by having the capability to get them. ‘Like scales falling from your eyes’ as Gammell said.

The same thing happens every year with my landscape students who bring brand-name yellow ochres outside and fight the chalky color for hours. Its impossible to key your colors correctly with tube paints which are full of extenders which dull the color.

Matching color in nature is hard enough with the right tools, with poor quality paints it becomes almost impossible.