How Many Colors Does It Take?

After looking at a box that could be Easter or maybe simply a Spring Basket and longing to do something with the miniature steer skulls I purchased in Quartzite, AZ, I decided on a course of action. AND, the best part was that I might be able to use the same colors on both!

There's the rub. After one, then another and finally about 15 more different colors, it dawned on me, how many colors DOES it take? Sure I needed a pink, then after looking at about 15 oranges, added orange, then I needed a counterpoint so lavender. The fence was to be cream with maybe a bit of white added later. Then of course the additional colors in the flowers. Then on to the stems.

So far, I could use all of these colors for what will become "The Last Chance Saloon Birdhouse." Well, maybe except for the sky colors there. But, then I added them to green and got a new color for the flower stems. Each stem though shaped the same has a different paint coat. I hate them to be boring.

Its hard to believe I just cleaned out my work area. One, well really two projects, and it was a mess all over again. Paint bottles, brushes, Sharpies for details, water to rinse and paper towels to wipe and dry,  it was an overflowing mess.

The entire table top is covered with little and some not so little, bottles of colors. What ever happened to the concept of about 8 basic colors and you created all the rest. Ah, wouldn't the masters of past centuries envied us? Or, maybe not. Its hard to say.

With all the technologies we have today, we forget what it was like in the past. I heard recently a docent explaining an IBM Selectric at the Reagan library. She related that many of the students look at it with a blank expression asking what it is. Wow, has it been that long ago?