Restricted Palettes

Painters receive training with simplified palettes as a matter of discipline; sometimes circumstances compel the use of a small assortment of colors, and often a painter will deliberately adapt a limited palette because it may best serve certain aesthetic reasons, aims, or principles. But even in this case it is not wise for the mature painter to exclude too rigidly from the palette pigments which are not habitually in use but which on occasion can be introduced into a painting with good results.

The pigments that comprise our modern approved list are the survivors of a process of elimination that has been going on for a [p. 37] long time--actually, for thousands of years. They remain in popular use not only because they fulfill the necessary chemical and physical requirements but also because a long development has established their status as good and useful tools of coloring and because each has individual characteristics sufficient to warrant its perpetuation. Neither artist nor colormaker wishes to include or perpetuate an excessively large number of nonessential items, and therefore it can be assumed that the colors on the approved list are all valuable. [pp. 37-38]