"How on earth am I ever going to choose?" I muttered, hunched over the PMS swatchbook, trying hard to whittle down my color selections to a mere three greens and two reds, picking out the shades for the next holiday giftware selections. And never mind choosing just a few cream-and-beiges, three browns and the perfect gray.
If you're an artist, you know the agony. If you're not, don't pass judgement on me... you can't imagine how hard it is to limit one's color choices.
"Keep your palette limited," echoed Anne's voice in my head, as I remembered her advising her watercolor students one day when I'd tagged along to a class at Daniel Smith. "Too many colors muddy your painting and confuse the eye."
I know she's right, but with so many beautiful shades in the rainbow picking out colors can be harder than going to the pound, where all those big brown, liquid eyes silently beg, "Choose me! Choose me! I'm a good one!"
So out to the garden I wandered, swatchbook in hand, eyeing the amazing bounty of blooms and berries until I found the perfect holiday palette. Currants dangling from frail stems, bobbing gently in the breeze, the quintessential holiday colors right in the middle of summer's glory.
With just a flick of the swatches my choices were made and I ran indoors to enter them on the computer. Whew! Next year when that holiday gift collection is sitting on the shelf and someone asks me the perennial question, "Where do you get all your ideas?" I think I can be pardoned for a giggle.
"You just never know!" I'll laugh.
