“The Hunt” Acrylic on MDF, 7″ x 5″

“The Hunt” is the 5th in my Gatti Liberi paintings (see link at top of page). This nameless boy is beginning his nightly hunt, and is just as likely being hunted, since that’s the reality of a free cat’s world. And because he’s hunting in the King’s Woods (my yard), I will call him Robin Hood.

This painting uses a “limited palette” called the Zorn Palette, named for Anders Leonard Zorn (February 18, 1860 – August 22, 1920), who was a successful artist from Sweden. It consists of just two colors: Cadmium Red Medium and Yellow Ocher, plus Ivory Black and Titanium White (both are non-colors). Zorn is known to have used other colors at times, and there are arguments as to whether or not this color palette should be attributed to him. But it is.

This is my first effort using it, and it has some wonderfully interesting features that I have yet to explore. The excessively dark nighttime walls and steps, surrounding the bright splash of light, is what tempted me into this palette.