Hello, friends! I just added a new video for you: "A Landscape of a Pumpkin Patch." In about 30 minutes, we'll paint rolling fields, soft green trees, and a patch full of bright orange pumpkins, perfect for this time of year. You'll find it in the Classroom, in the free course, under "Extra Videos Inspiration for You." Grab your paints and paint along with me. When you're done, post a picture of your pumpkin patch here. I'd love to see it! Kathleen

Free for you! Every class I teach uses the same 14-color Daniel Smith palette. It has a warm and a cool version of each primary color (red, yellow, and blue) and each secondary color (green, purple, and orange), plus a brown and a black. With these 14 colors, you can paint landscapes, still lifes, portraits, and abstracts. The palette has 20 wells, so there's room to add your own favorites as you grow. I hold a free Palette-Building Class whenever enough people sign up. You'll watch me fill each well, hear why I chose every color, and see how the colors mix together. To save your seat, comment "Count me in" below. When enough painters have signed up, I'll post the date on our calendar and let you know. Why Daniel Smith? It all started with one tube of paint. Loyal to a Color When I started riding the bus to my job at the University of Texas, I decided to paint along the way. I carried an old plastic box palette of half pans that I had used for so many years that most of the pans were nearly scraped clean. On that first ride, I painted with whatever colors were still full enough to use, and I painted a geranium. Photo of Geranium Painting included. The next day, I wanted to paint a longhorn. I had printed a reference photo at home, because planning a painting has always been my favorite part. But on the bus, I realized how few of the colors in my photo I actually had. I painted anyway, and it turned out well, but I made a list of the colors I was missing. At the top was burnt orange, the color I saw most in that longhorn's coat. (A burnt orange longhorn, painted on the way to UT!) Photo of Longhorn Painting included. That night, I dumped my whole box of paint onto the table and hunted for anything close. And there it was: one tube of Daniel Smith Quinacridone Burnt Orange. I had bought it, along with two others, from a Daniel Smith representative I met at Ziegler's, the family-owned art store in Tulsa where I had taught, bought my supplies, shown my work, and had every painting framed.