Palette

A palette is a smooth flat surface on which the artist lays out and mixes their paints before applying them to the picture; it often has a thumb-hole so that it can be conveniently held in the hand. The classic painter's palette is a thin wooden board of oval or rectangular shape, though glass, porcelain, metal and modern disposable paper palettes are also used. On it the artist prepares the required shades, adjusts the amount of paint and solvent and keeps an ordered set of colours at hand throughout the work. In a figurative, broader sense, "palette" refers to the characteristic set of colours of an artist or work — its colour range. Thus one speaks of a "cool" or "warm" palette, or of the restrained or saturated palette of a particular master. The way paints are arranged on the palette reflects the working method: some artists build a clear tonal series, others mix colours intuitively. In a still wider figurative sense the word is used beyond painting too — one speaks of a composer's tonal palette or a writer's palette of devices. Thus the palette is at once a concrete tool and a metaphor for artistic range.