Studio Incamminati Palette

Palette as Abstract Art

The pictured method of palette maintenance would drive me bonkers - I have to clean off my palette almost every night! The "pile it up" style of palette layout comes, I think, directly from the top at Studio Incamminati and those who decide to just let the paint build up say they can still dig into these towers of hardened paint and find useable, liquid gold in there somewhere. This palette belongs to one of the top instructors at the school and he gave his permission for me to photograph it.

The palette of colors used at Studio Incamminati generally consists of more than 20 colors, (click here for an example from the supply list for a winter program) which are laid out in the same order every time. And, no, you don't have to be this messy about it!

The provenance for this extended palette of colors comes from Henry Hensche, who was a mentor to Nelson Shanks, the founder of Studio Incamminati.  Nelson Shanks traveled to Provincetown and The Cape School to study how to enhance his ability to see color, following in the footsteps of the Impressionists, such as Monet. This atelier is unique in that, in addition to the requisite charcoal drawing and cast paintings, artists study color combined with tonalism! Graduates have all the tools necessary to go ahead and be truly creative with their concepts and ideas. Their work has both the sculptural form and shimmering color of a marriage of classical training and Impressionist color.