Saturday, February 11, 2012

The palette of Norman Rockwell

 June Trefs Bell inquired "wonder what palette Norman Rockwell used?", after she and her family enjoyed viewing the exhibit at the Dayton Art Institute in Ohio. Having recently had the pleasure of exploring the exhibit myself, and always wanting to find the answer for a friend, I did some research in my own library and online. Here is what I found; 


                                               NORMAN ROCKWELL'S PALETTE
 

The colors he generally used were manufactured by Winsor & Newton , those in lower case represent the colors he only used on occasion;
ALIZARIN CRIMSON
rose madder
VENETIAN RED
CADMIUM RED DEEP
VERMILION
BURNT SIENNA
burnt umber
mars violet
RAW UMBER
RAW SIENNA
YELLOW OCHRE
cadmium orange
CADMIUM YELLOW PALE
LEMON YELLOW
ZINC WHITE
VIRIDIAN
terre verte
FRENCH ULTRAMARINE
IVORY BLACK
 cobalt blue
cerulean blue
payne's gray


His medium, when he used one, consisted of rectified turpentine and Grumbacher's Oil Medium #2

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Another source says Rockwell used Shiva paints, with which he employed the following palette:
ALIZARIN CRIMSON
CADMIUM RED DEEP
CADMIUM SCARLET
CADMIUM RED, EXTRA PALE
BURNT SIENNA
RAW UMBER
RAW SIENNA
FERROUS YELLOW
LEMON YELLOW
ZINC WHITE
VIRIDIAN
COBALT BLUE
ULTRAMARINE BLUE
magnesium blue
cadmium yellow medium
cadmium orange
light red

With these, he used Shiva's artist medium.
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Some excellent info found from these sources;

http://www.blogger.com/profile/06683605918720652182

http://www.blogger.com/profile/05321227473311180542

†† Norman Rockwell. Rockwell on Rockwell:  Watson-Guptill Publications, 1979.



2 comments:

Gloria E. Moses said...

Rockwell was one of the first artist I ever purchased work for when I was a young person(yes it was just a plate). His craftsmanship was evident even to my untrained eye, but it was the stories he told so eloquently that just amazed me. Thank you for sharing your research. Is this his work? Or your homage to him, because I know you are that good!!

Susie Morrell said...

how ironic that I had just visited the Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge just before I met you on my way to Putney, VT and Qiang Huang's workshop...and this was a recent post for you about Rockwell's palatte We were meant to be painting buddies! Look forward to following your posts!