The colours of 2024

I love colours, and an important part of my process is the time that I spend researching palettes and selecting paints.  Even in cases where I introduce additional media such as graphite and pastels into the work, I do make a point of restricting my paint palette to very few, single-pigment paints.  It is then easier to produce harmonious colour mixes and re-create them at will, if I run out or want to make corrections later.

In working this way, pigments sometimes keep coming back into my palette across paintings.  I like to think that these create a thread that links paintings across time, a bit like a family tree, with generations dying out while others endure.

Phthalo blue has been prominent in my work for a number of years.  I often use it to mix near-black greens and purples.  

This year though I can sense a shift happening with my use of blues.  In the past few months I have either been more interested in the turquoise and green versions of phthalo, replaced it with prussian (as the closest available mono-pigment shade in water-soluble oils, which I now use more than acrylics), or removed blue altogether from my palette.  

Red iron oxide on the other hand has gradually appeared more and more in my paintings, sometimes in its pure form but more often to produce soft, creamy pinks and beiges.

Finally, I used raw sienna extensively this year as I developed my current collection of works inspired by the coast, as a relatively close match to the colour of sand.  As I move to other paintings though, I find myself also using it as a warm, muted alternative to yellow.  

Stay tuned for the many works that are still in progress using these three shades.  A number of them will be ready to varnish, photograph, frame and exhibit in the first half of 2025.  I rather like the concept of a ‘colour of the year’ (and am partial to Pantone’s appetising choice for 2025 by the way - mocha mousse…).

Here's to 2025 and whatever colours emerge as important then...