I arrived early to the Neville Museum last week, excited to face another afternoon of painting a portrait from life. I set up my easel and put paints on my palette as I waited for my model to get there. When she did, she looked at the palette and said "What are all those colors doing there?" I started to explain that those are the colors I use in painting portraits. She stopped me and said, "I thought you were going to paint me in black and white." You were serious??? I hadn't done a monochromatic portrait in a long time. The work is entirely about value, not color. It took me about an hour to start to feel like I was getting somewhere. Working in one color is really a challenge! I encourage my artist friends to do it every once in a while.
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