john singer sargent and the 1800's.

I recently went to the metropolitan museum of art in NYC and hung out around the old paintings for 6 hours. you know, the usual. i sat and stared at rembrandt and vermeer for literally 6 hours. while the guards were kicking us out, i stumbled into a room where i couldnt take pictures and something grabbed my eye. a small painting made with subtle grays and hints of reddish pink. it was John Singer Sargent's painting "a street in venice". i sat there jaw dropped. it was just stunning. and right there i had to know how he did it. so, i've been deciphering his pallette and finding out some crazy things about color that i never knew about. i feel like i've improved ten-fold since i've started reading books about sargent. even tho they don't actually talk about how he painted them, i've been staring at the pictures. i'm amazed at what you can do with 4 colors. white, burnt sienna, burnt umber, golden ochre. check out the sargent attempt #2. the whole thing is done with these four colors. and try it sometime! instead of obscessing about color mixtures, using a limited pallette simplifies it all. thanks for reading!

burnt umber, white, burnt sienna, golden ochre.