This is my demo painting for a class on Color Theory that I taught this past weekend. The dolphin was carved by my husband and the knife and glasses are supposed to make it look like the carver will return at any moment. This is called a "still-life portrait", as it suggest s the presence of a person without showing the person. It was painted using a very limited palette of cadmium yellow, cadmium red light, ultramarine blue, alizarin crimson, yellow ochre and titanium white. The goal was to have the students mix their own colors instead of reaching for that tube of synthetic bright green... or whatever. Everyone finished their painting and was quite happy with it.
