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plates are for food

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Syd Edward

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Why is it that some artists writing for magazines tell you to use a white plate( scarce as hens teeth) as a palette if you cant buy a proper palette . is anyone so poor that they cant afford the few pounds to buy a plastic palette. How do you stop all your washes sliding together on the plate, use thicker paint? The artist then goes on to advocate artists quality paint ,all the cadmiums cobalt and cerulean etc. Oh and a size 10 round sable to start with, even though a palette is going to break the bank ! Is Using a plate better than a palette or is it just another bit of professional art hokum?

Sylvia Evans

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I do agree Syd tis a silly waste. Though often plastic palettes do get gungy and stained. I often use throw away party paper plates, the real cheapo things. They work well and I just sling them.

Edited
by North Light

michael

Michael Edwards

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Errr - actually I use a white ceramic plate for acrylics - but I do reserve my palettes for watercolours

Alan Bickley

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Well Syd, I'm afraid that I am a bit of an animal when it comes to palettes, I will use anything and everything, yes, from plates, mugs, mountboard, cardboard, glass, you name it, I've used it. I do have palettes but never seem to get round to cleaning them and they have to be thrown. Wasteful, I agree, but that's how I am. My immediate concern is my painting and all else take a back seat. I do look after my brushes though. I also use cups and mugs for turps etc if I havn't got an old tin or something to hand, and reuse them of course. I've started buying the tear-off ones now and have a couple of them on the go, but when I am painting in oils, usually a largish canvas, I run out of space fairly quickly and grab the first thing to hand, nearly always mountboard, or it could be a plate, any colour plate is fine by me, I'm not proud! It's not the money Syd, its a case of grabbing what's at hand at the time. Perhaps I should plan better but I can't.
With Sarah, Phil, Ellen, Rose the dentist, and the granddaughter whose name I forget.

Robert Jones, Napa

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I do have an old plate which is sometimes pressed into use, plus a few plastic picnic plates - but Syd's right, it's hard to stop the colours sliding into each other and for that reason I'd prefer to use a palette (still haven't got one for watercolour, or not a good one, but I will). I suppose the plate advice is given in an effort to be helpful... but I think sometimes these little nuggets are given to us because the writer is just repeating someone else's advice; there's inevitably a bit of repetition in all these how-to articles - my advice, in any medium, would be to get yourself a big palette with enough room to do what you want to do. If you haven't already, though, take a look at Steve Cronin's demonstrations on YouTube - his palette, just about the dirtiest I've ever seen, looks like an old meat tray: and still he gets results.... whereas Arnold Lowrey cleans his palette with a wipe of the sponge, saying that it may be wasteful of paint but it's important to keep his colours clean. So there's as much variety in the advice about this sort of thing as there is about anything else in the practice of art - as to who's right and who's wrong.... probably we need to be asking what's right for US; I like a clean palette in all media and if mine is getting clogged with paint I'll stop and clean it - for others, that would interrupt the flow (I suppose).
michael

Michael Edwards

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Following on from Roberts connents about a dirty palette I am afraid I am the same when it comes to water. You see the advice to keep changing it, to have two pots (one to wash the brush and one for mixing colours) but I tend to have one which gets quite black and syrupy by the time I come to the end of a painting. Getting back to the palette I do wipe it clean from tine to time with my trusty musty old rag which I couldn't do without.

Alan Bickley

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I suppose that I was referring to oil paints, for watercolours I use a plate and l have loads of those small ramekins to mix my washes in, just the right size and easy to clean.
michael

Michael Edwards

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Interesting Alan and just shows how we all work differently - as I said above I never bother to change my water which is almost black at the end of a painting and never seems to cause me any problems. I use a pot jar - it had stilton in it when it was new and smells a bit as though it still has when I've finished a painting. When I do come to the end of a painting I have two 2 pint plastic milk bottles in the studio with fresh water in and the dirty residue ends up over the lawn - occasionally I might take the pot into the house (don't have the luxury of a sink in the studio) and wash its bottom where the residue does build up a bit. If plates are for food then jam jars are for jam. Like you I wouldn't mind another ton and ginic right now !!
With Sarah, Phil, Ellen, Rose the dentist, and the granddaughter whose name I forget.

Robert Jones, Napa

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'Oo, me? I'm not the Gauleiter of the Forum - you step out of line, boy, and do it with my blessing!

Alan Bickley

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As well as still using my palettes for oil painting I took Sylvia's advice and bought a stack of white paper plates 100 for £1 and have never looked back, great to mix oils on and I can paint straight from the plate or transfer to palette which is my normal route. Just gives me loads more mixing space which I find useful, and you can also use them for watercolour if you run out of space.

Michelle Hincks

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I've got palettes but prefer to use a plate and cover this in tin foil (for oils). At the end of the session I just take the tin foil off and discard. I don't remember where I picked this idea up from but in the end it comes down to personal preference I guess.

Edited
by mich83

Derek Snowdon

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When I used watercolour in the studio hah! I have a very old ceramic plate of my mum's. It's still there with lumps of paint all round the edge, always in the same sequence, but that was never thought through in terms of warm/cold or complimentary. Now I use a stay wet palette for my acrylics bought in and that does me fine.
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