My favourite colours to mix shadows
Week Seventeen is Cerulean Blue, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber & Ultramarine Blue
Last week’s post came from the Le Marche region of Italy where I was teaching on a retreat. It was a wonderful experience to share a week of art making and exploring creative possibilities with a great group of people from around the world.
Our stay was made very comfortable by our hosts Tim and Madeline and their staff at Hotel Leone. The food was delicious, and our setting in the hill top town of Montelparo was rather spectacular.
My first art retreat for 2027 have just been announced, it will happen next February in magical Marrakech in Morocco. Read on to find out more.
Whilst in Italy I was gifted a beautiful set of handmade watercolours made by A. Gallo. This particular set contains colours picked for the region of Le Marche. The pans are handmade with a high pigment concentration using a honey-base with gum Arabic and are works of art themselves.
This week’s colours are picked from a watercolour painting on a postcard where I used combinations of browns and blues to mix my favourite hues for shading.
Contributing subscribers can scroll down to the end of this post to see the 35 minute long video I recorded of the mixing process.
Colour sample on a postcard, watercolours, Esté MacLeod, 2026
Colour Combination
The colours this week are Cerulean Blue, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber & Ultramarine Blue. Use them along with a contrasting dark and neutral light colour to create an artwork in any medium or style. If you enjoy this weekly dollop of colour and creativity please share this post with others who might like them as well.
Shapes
Along with the colour prompt I am including some shapes inspired by the artwork which you can download as a PDF and print out to use as you wish.
Marvellous Morocco
Join us for a week of colour, culture and creativity in Morocco. I’m very please to announce that my first retreat of 2027 will be in Marrakech from 27 February to 6 March.
Once again I’ll be working with the wonderful hosts Harrison and Katel of Perigord Retreats where I taught last summer. We’re swapping the medieval villages and lush green hills of the Dordogne for a beautiful villa set in an olive grove just outside Marrakech, with views stretching toward the Atlas Mountains and the Agafay Desert.
For Contributing Subscribers
Here’s a 35 minute video of the mixing process using the A. Gallo watercolours to create this week’s artwork.
