Messy Paint Palette Solution!

When next shopping to top up your painting kit you will need to buy three things; a ream of white typing paper, a roll of cling-wrap and a bucket of ice-cream!

One of the many great annoyances for an oil painter is post session clean-up.  It’s something most artists dread immensely and on our most fickle days the mere thought of having to clean up the oil palette afterwards is so noisome one does rather often consider returning to painting with acrylic paints only.  The smell of turpentine is a difficult thing to delete after removing swathes of oil paint from one’s hands with it!

Cleaning an oil palette is a ghastly business and nothing short of using disposable palettes prevents this messy chore, which, if purchasing palettes can become a costly addition to an already expensive profession.  The use of an ice-cream lid works wonderfully well as a substitute for disposable palettes, but if one paints prolifically, the disposal of these after a session or every few sessions leaves one rather short of options, unless one is of course and ice-cream addict!  The lids, too, aren’t always white and having to prime a palette with white gesso before getting underway with your latest inspiration is just insane.

Tendrils #7, ‘Temptation, in progress.  Completed artwork now represented by http://www.teazartstudios.com

‘Necessity is the mother of all invention!’  and here is the solution to this artistic predicament…

Take a plastic ice-cream lid, line it with a piece of white typing paper or two so that you have a pure white surface upon which to layer your paints, wrap the lid in cling-wrap.

When you’ve finished a session, or need a clean palette (or have left this one to go hard), simply unwrap the cling-wrap and bin it.  Repeat to make a new, clean palette.

TIP:  To prevent your paint from drying if you leave a session unexpectedly or for a length of time, seal your palette in a clean, dry plastic freezer bag (don’t freeze it!), leaving enough of an air bubble inside for the bag itself not to settle on the paint.  Twist it off with a knot, twist-tie or bread-bag twist to seal your paint from the outside air.

© TAHALA 2010 Printed with permission, first rights, TeziMagazine.com