Paint and Palettes

  

       I’ve always been a lover of paint and paint palettes. I vividly remember the excitement I felt opening that rectangular tin filled with round cakes of watercolor paint in elementary school. I was hooked! From that point on, I have wanted to explore and express within the inviting purity of paint. 

  

     In 1988 I had a beach side shop where I hand painted women's clothing. I was using acrylic paint in abundance. One morning I had cleaned my palette off, and had peeled a large colorful piece of variegated and textured acrylic paint from it.  Some friends of mine came into the shop (actually it was my minister and his wife). During our brief conversation, I showed them the peeled up paint and said, “This is too pretty to throw away, but I don’t know what to do with it.” The husband said, “Oh, you should cut it up and make it into jewelry!” We all laughed about it. It was like "Yeah right, I should try it!” 

After they left I thought "Wow, that could have been an answer to prayer! I should do it!” I cut it up, glued earring posts on the back, and put them on little cards with the hand painted shirts. And they started selling.

That year I discovered that the dried acrylic paint peeled from the artist palette is a great material to upcycle into wearable art jewelry. Since then the jewelry pieces have vastly evolved, but the process still begins with the dried acrylic paint peeled from the palette.  

    

            Fast forward several years. At an art festival in south Florida, I had my Parts of Art jewelry on display. One of the customers was looking particularly closely at the upcycled wearable art pieces, so I started a short explanation of the process.  She listened, then replied  "I know they're made from paint, because I make paint." It took me a moment to realize what she had just said, but then she introduced herself. "I'm Barbara Golden, and my husband and I make paint!" Okay, so in my world this was a famous celebrity. The Goldens of Golden Paints, of course!  At that time, the now iconic paint company was just starting to make waves in the arts world with their line of acrylics, glazes and texturing pastes. My husband and I were not only familiar with their paint line, but used it in our business, and proudly wore the t-shirts given to us by our local paint rep. The t-shirts had the full palette of Golden colors in a grid pattern across the front, and each color was an actual brush stroke of golden Paint. When I told Mrs Golden about how we loved the shirts, she said "Oh yes, my mom and I painted all those at the kitchen table!"

     That one memory of paint and palettes has stayed with me all these years. Here was a couple who started a little paint business that went big-time, and yet they started at the kitchen table. Years later, that memory is what inspired me to have my palette notecards printed and then add an actual brush stroke of acrylic paint to each tray. Now each card is a hand-painted one of a kind art piece. The card is blank inside, ready to send, and available in the shop.

Here is a video of the wall of palettes in my studio. 

    

 In celebration of paint and palettes,

 I humbly present hand-painted Watercolor Palette notecards. 

Watercolor notecards are available here.

Do you have a story about paint and palettes? I would love to hear it!