Mixing greens

I have used quite a lot of pre-mixed greens in the past, viridian and green gold being the two I have on my palette the most. I’ve also tried sap green, terre verte, permanent green light, emerald, and Italian green umber. However, I‘m never fully satisfied with the hues they produce. They never look quite right to me and I feel like a bit of a fraud when I use them. They’re handy for plein air as they can save time mixing but I have decided not to use them again (for now at least). I did this little oil study of some trees the other day when the sky was a lot greyer. I used cad yellow, yellow ochre, ultramarine, and cerulean for the greens and I was quite pleased with the result. I felt like I had a lot more control over the colours and that’s very important for plein air. So I’m sticking with using these four colours for now, possibly with a cad yellow light thrown in.

Now I’ll have to find some use for the all the tubes of green paint I’ve still got 😕

12 x 8” oil on linen