“Re-conserved” abstract paintings

Paint "mountain" on palette in Paquette studio.
Unused paint scrapings building up.

Yes, I go through a lot of paint.
I try to get most of it to the canvas, but at the end of the day, as for all artists, there is always some left on the palette. I save colors that may be useful in the next day or two, then scrape any remainders to the edge of my glass palette. Those tiny bits accrete and have grown into mountains like the latest (and so far, most massive) one shown here that is currently on my palette table.

When working on large landscape paintings, I am sometimes faced with large amounts of some very interesting mixed colors. If they are no longer of any conceivable use for the current painting, I came up with a solution several years ago to save this paint from going to a palette mountain or landfill. I now “reconserve” these occasional tranches of intriguing color by using them where possible to create non-representational paintings.

I now have dozens of works that have emerged from this unlikely source, and I find the process singularly satisfying. By using only paint that might otherwise go to a landfill, I not only reduce my footprint there, but also get to delve into a satisfying new art problem to explore: can I make something aesthetically worthy from arbitrarily-mixed colors that are available only in unpredictable quantities at unpredictable moments? I love that challenge of this odd twist on a “limited palette” painting.

Though sometimes extremely thick, I keep these paintings relatively small in scale to keep me from the temptation – or necessity – of adding fresh paint from tubes to stretch them to greater proportions. I don’t wish to violate their essential “reconserved” nature.

The scrap mountains continue to grow on my table as they must, but in these reconserved works, at least some of the more interesting “waste” paint has a far more gratifying end.

To inquire about available paintings: paquette.studio@gmail.com