Nothing serious. Mixed media 16x20" on illustration board.

I typically paint strong paintings using a very neutral palette. Think tan, white, browns, the blues..you know, my usual. This summer, however, I have been reaching over and over for the yellows and golds. Is it the definition of insanity? Repeating something over and over and expecting different results? I ALWAYS have trouble with the yellows.... but why do I always reach for them?

Talking with my friend this morning, she made a good point... she mentioned that she bets we can look at someone's portfolio and a picture of their living room and match them up. Wouldn't you know it? I painted every wall in the house neutral (Sandstone Cove to be exact) and I usually only wear Black, white and navy. I dress and decorate in the same way that I paint! It's true.

Trouble arose yesterday when I had some trouble with fixative on the two paintings pictured below:

I wanted these paintings to work. What you cannot see in the picture is a bunch of light colored (worn) graffiti. The graffiti was not to be bold...just barely there. Well, the fixative darkened the light pastel I wrote it in and I could not salvage it. So I started over. The diptych shortly became one new, awesome yellow painting (not pictured) plus one green and pink painting that was going south FAST.

Green and Pink???? What the hell happened to me? That painting has since been destroyed... I got the pink and green out of my system.. and understand that how much I want to use those sort of colors sometimes, they are not for me... I'm sticking to what I know.

So what do you think? Happen to you? Let me know on Facebook. I am interested to know what you think. Thanks for stopping in! We are enjoying light rain in San Diego today...a real "howler" in July! Can you believe it?

Happy. #mixedmedia #art #blog