Raw Yellow sets the weight of the palette in warmth and creativity, and Charcoal Ground is the swatch that breaks rank: a single charcoal that stops the set reading as one note. Charcoal Ground to Canvas spans 79 points of lightness, so the palette can carry its own hierarchy without reaching for a second one. Cadmium Red and Prussian Blue sit on opposite sides of the temperature line, which is the tension the palette runs on and the pair to hold apart.
Charcoal Ground is black's softer relative, still authoritative, but with enough warmth to feel considered rather than severe.
Cadmium Red reads as pure adrenaline: alarm, desire, the color of things that move fast.
Prussian Blue is the most trusted color in color psychology: competence, stability, calm, used constantly by institutions that need to be believed.
Raw Yellow a citrus-bright orange: enthusiasm, playfulness, an unmistakable call to attention.
Canvas a peach or apricot tint, all the friendliness of orange with none of the volume.
Bold, emotional non-representational art emphasizing spontaneity
Explore the full Abstract Expressionism style guideIts decade on the timeline · 1940s