Artist Palette Profiles: Claire Giordano

I love Claire Giordano’s quick but detailed mountain landscapes and I am a proud student of her Adventure Art Academy. According to Claire’s resource guide, her palette has changed depending on the landscape where she paints, and I’ve seen a few iterations of it, but this is what’s currently covered in her video, Colors in My Adventure Painting Kit. All colors are Daniel Smith.

Most Used Colors

Slot	Claire Has	Claire Quotes
Black	DS Neutral Tint	“I love Neutral Tint. It’s a really wonderful versatile color. As the name implies, you can add it to other colors and it gently brings them more toward gray. It is also a color I will use sometimes for any entire painting.”
Middle Blue	DS Cobalt Blue (PB28)	“Cobalt Blue is one of my few colors that is derived from heavy metals so as a result, I have to make sure that I don’t dump any water that has cobalt blue in it outside. I carry it out with me. … It’s an unmatched color for conveying the gorgeous color of our bluebird skies out here [in the Pacific Northwest].”
Cyan	DS Phthalo Blue Green Shade (PB15:3)	“I like to describe this color as a pigment that likes to steal the party… a teeny tiny bit goes a long way.”
Middle Yellow	DS Hansa Yellow Medium (PY97)
Warm Yellow	DS New Gamboge (PY110 + PY97)
Magenta	DS Quin Rose (PV19)
Scarlet	DS Pyrrol Scarlet (PR255)

Additional Colors

Slot	Claire Has	Some Alternatives
Violet Blue	DS Ultramarine Blue (PB29)	“So gorgeous. Very high granulation ability.”
Violet Blue	DS Indanthrone Blue (PB60)	“Absolutely delightful really really really dark blue. This one has an interesting quirk in that it dries much lighter and less saturated than it appears when wet… so whenever I work with this color, if I do want it stay at a very high level of saturation, I will add a little bit of Phthalo Blue Green Shade.”
Gold	DS Quin Gold (PY150/PO48)
Bright Cool Yellow	DS Hansa Yellow Light (PY3)
Green	DS Phthalo Green Blue Shade (PG7)
Earth Red	DS Indian Red (PR101)
Earth Orange	DS Quin Burnt Orange (PO48)
Middle Red	DS Perylene Red (PR178)

Colors Used Sparingly

Slot	Claire Has	Some Alternatives
White	SH Gouache – Titanium White (PW6)
Middle Blue	DS Phthalo Blue Red Shade (PB15:6)	“Like our lovely Indanthrone Blue, this paint will also have a pretty dramatic shift in color, so when it dries it does not retain the same level of vibrancy; it will tone down in saturation and get a little more purple in appearance… As a result of that, it makes some spectacular mixes that I really can’t get any other way. It’s a great blue to tone down green mixes because of that color shift and dulling effect.”
Violet	DS Carbazole Violet (PV23)	“A stunning deep dark purple… You can get a similar color by mixing one of these other blues with rose, but having the purple on its own gives me more mixing possibilities.”
Earth Orange	Burnt Sienna (PBr7)
Dark Green	DS Perylene Green (PBk31)
Granulating Cyan	DS Cerulean Blue Chromium (PB36)	“I like Cerulean Blue especially in mixtures with yellows and pinks because if I mix it with non-granulating colors, it will settle out, and I get really interesting effects.”
Granulating Cyan	DS Cobalt Teal Blue (PG50)	“Not one I use very much. I often get asked why I keep it if I don’t use it much, and I don’t have a super great answer. There’s a couple small reasons. There’s a lot of dark blues in my palette, so having a bright one right in the middle helps me to distinguish among the others. If I’m working quickly, it helps me find my way around my palette. And as another granulating pigment, it makes some unique effects that are harder to get. I can mix a similar non-granulating color with Phthalo Blue Green Shade and a little bit of Hansa Yellow Medium, but if I want that texture for glaciers or certain alpine lakes, [Cobalt Teal Blue] is my go-to color.”
Granulating Dark Blue	DS Sodalite Genuine	“This is a color I did not expect to love as much as I do. It’s even more granulating than Ultramarine Blue. It’s very subtle, more of a gray than a blue… A fun addition to my palette.”
Granulating Black	DS Lunar Black (PBk11)
Coastal Sand Buff	DS Buff Titanium (PW6:1)

Conclusion

I love exploring the palettes of my favorite artists because it’s fascinating to me what colors keep showing up again and again, and which ones are more unusual and perhaps signature to a particular person’s style or preferences. For example, I strongly associate Cobalt Blue skies and Carbazole Violet mountain shadows with Claire, but it feels like everyone has Ultramarine and Quin Gold. Gradually, slowly, I think this exercise is also helping me to identify which colors are my favorites as I peek over and see which ones I want to copy and which ones I’m like, “Nah.”

I hope you’ve enjoyed another look into the palette box of an artist!