My business had a couple large boarded-up windows. We finally had the resources and time to have them opened up and replaced. In one of the openings were the remnants of a large sash with several broken lites, but some yet in tact. I thought, what if I cleaned up one of them and made a respectable painting palette! It’s Project Day today, so here I go!
I used leftover pine that I milled down on the table saw for the edges, I backed it with some really nice Polish birch plywood from a box that a hurdy gurdy was shipped to me in. I painted the back of the cleaned up glass with some tough white primer. The wood will be finished in tung oil.
I remember my friend, Sophy, from art school. She painted large abstract oils in her small apartment, which had a sizable glass table, like 4′ x 4′ that she used as a palette and to hold her overfull ashtray. When I went to back to paint at my place, with my small pad of disposable paper palettes, I thought about the large, bold smears of color on her table, and how well she’d gotten to understand the colors before they even reached her canvas.
My new palatte is 22″ x 18″, a far cry from Sophie’s expressionist table, but it will do! For now, I’ve got smaller works lined up.