When making a whistle stop tour to visit our son in Cape Town I of course had to go and visit some art shops.  Sadly nothing quite compares to that huge craft store in Dubai called Creative Minds…  I am going to have to make peace with more modest art stores here in SA.  Finding everything I need is definitely more challenging.  Sadly Amazon and other craft stores that are available to American online shoppers are a nightmare for South Africans, as postage ends up costing more than the supplies you have ordered, and then customs slaps the imports with a million percent duty.  No need to wonder why artists have to deal with spiralling costs of paints, canvases, brushes, pencil crayons…..  The list goes on!

But enough of that I digress…. I found an art store in the centre of town close to our son called Artsauce A surprisingly well stocked store, with friendly helpful staff who are more than willing to help you source items they do not have in stock!  While sniffling through the racks of paints I discovered 2 yellows I was not familiar with.

When I need yellow I usually look to Cadmium Yellow light, Hansa Yellow, Cadmium Lemon Yellow or Naples Yellow.  I hadn’t come across Bismuth Yellow or Indian yellow before so was keen to see how they performed on canvas.

Bowl of lemons
Acrylic on canvas
20 X 20cm

The lemons were painted with Cobolt Violet, Bismuth Yellow, Indian Yellow and a dash of Raw Umber.  I find it incredible how complementaries like violet and yellow can create such beautiful colours perfect for painting lemons!

Mosaic of close-ups