I don’t have a purple paint in my watercolor palette. So every time I use purple I mix it up. I use purple a lot! As I seldom clean out the wells of my palette, there was some purple left from yesterday’s lilacs so I decided I would paint some purple tulips today.

I took a picture of some tulips in my front yard last year. I planted them in the grass so they pop up and bloom across my front yard. Once they are done I give my husband permission to mow over them. When I see them peeking out each spring it fills me with joy for the new season. Right now they are covered in several inches of snow so it’ll be a while before they make their debut, but I can paint some of those joyful feelings in today’s painting. These are not as loosely painted as the lilacs and dandelions from this week , but still pretty impressionistic.

In addition to not having purple in my palette I also don’t have a black. I prefer to mix my own blacks; I find it is better balanced with the painting that way.

Are there colors you always mix up yourself or do you use what is in your palette primarily?