Premium Palette Story
After painting and teaching for over twenty years, Seattle Artist Ann Breckon (NWS, NWWS) has developed a thoughtful, versatile and durable palette. Each feature came about as a solution to observed problems:
She was aware of students in her classes protecting dried puddles of paint on their palettes during class because they were working on another painting at home and needed to save those color mixes. They'd pile all kinds of crazy trays and plates around their painting area to use as mixing areas instead of their palette. And privately, Ann paints multiple paintings at the same time, often setting a painting aside to study for a few days before finishing. When switching to a different painting, she also wished to preserve the color combinations in the mixing area of the palette. Another problem was students who had damaged their central area with chemicals, scratches or super-staining paints. They were using this terrible surface instead of buying a new palette because they still had lots of expensive paints in the wells of the palette. Thus the desire was born for interchangeable mixing trays for the center of the palette.
Choosing the limited number of colors to place in the wells of a palette is difficult. Watercolorists will be living (and painting) with those colors for a long time! Once committed, an artist sometimes finds new colors to love, or they go to a workshop and that teacher requires a different list of pigments. Or we wish we could carry with us side palettes of colors to use occasionally, or that have specific characteristics: opaque, granular, staining, different media. The Pack-Along Palette is a perfect solution to all of these situations. One fits neatly into the lid of the Premium Palette, and it is simple to carry several more. Their size also makes them perfect for plein air painting.
Students are often looking for more square inches in which to mix colors. The Premium Palette System has four: the main mixing area of the large palette, it's lid, the Interchangeable Mixing Tray, and the lid of the Pack-Along. The lids and trays also have sides high enough to be used for pouring or puddling.
Another problem Ann and many of her students were having with their previous palettes was the cracking of palette corners and lids. The Premium Palette is made with a heavier weight of plastic for superior endurance and strength.
The Premium Palette System is being made in Vancouver, Washington, USA. The design, development and manufacturing have been years in the making and the hope is that this sturdier, well-thought-out palette will become a favorite of artists everywhere.