The iconic shape of a painter's pallet is so intrinsically linked with what it means to be a painter that many moons ago I took my inability to get any use out of them as an ominous sign for my fate as a painter. Turns out I am more of a frying pan man. I mix a lot of paint at once and then usually take what's left over and mix it with even more paint to get to the next colour. Combine that with the fact that I like my paint quite runny and you end up a with a heap of liquid mess dripping down one of those straight boards.

Having given up any hope of being a clean, organised painter holding one of those neat pallets years ago I have been using tin cans, jam jars and old plates ever since.  Somehow a few old frying pans found their way into the studio recently and I realised that to me they are the perfect palette. Spacious, easy to hold and flat enough to get a really good feel for the colour. Maybe there's hope for me yet.