The Exact Change Palette

The Story Behind the Palette

I didn't set out to create a watercolor palette. I was simply writing a story.

As the novel slowly found its rhythm, I noticed that the same colors kept finding their way onto my palette. I wasn't choosing them deliberately. They just seemed to belong to Saltmere.

Whenever Marian walked down to the harbor in the early morning, the Blue Sea was never the same color twice. Some days it carried the soft blue. Other mornings it reflected the sky in muted greys that couldn't quite decide where one ended and the other began.

The old harbor had its own palette too. Weathered wooden posts, faded boats and benches shaped by salt, wind and time slowly became Driftwood - a warm brown with quiet depth rather than sharp contrast.

By late summer, the cliffs above the town were covered in heather. Not the bright purple people often imagine, but a softer, dustier shade that seemed to disappear into the evening light. That color became Heather.

Just before the weather changed, the sea would darken. Not black, never completely, but layered with charcoal and cool shadows. That became Storm.

And outside the little florist's shop, old terracotta pots stood beside pale roses, worn brick and sun-faded walls. Those warm, earthy pinks slowly became Rose Clay.

Looking back, I realized I hadn't chosen these colors because they were beautiful.

I had chosen them because they belonged to the world I was writing.

By the time I finished The Exact Change, the palette had become as much a part of the story as the harbor, the florist's doorway and Marian's tiny paintings.

It felt only natural to make them by hand.

Like all my watercolors, these paints are handmade in Denmark in small batches. They are highly granulating colors that separate, bloom and create their own textures on the paper. I rarely try to control them completely. Some of my favorite moments happen when the pigments are simply allowed to do what they naturally want to do.

If you've read The Exact Change, I hope these colors take you back to Saltmere.

If you haven't, I hope they'll become part of a story of your own.

The colors:

#451 Blue Sea. A soft blue inspired by the sea in Saltmere. A calming misty blue.

#450 Driftwood. A warm weathered brown inspired by old harbor timber shaped by salt, wind and sun.

#449 Heather. A muted dusty purple inspired by wild heather growing along the cliffs in late summer. 

#452 Storm. A deep black inspired by rough seas, wet stone and the sky just before the weather changes. 

#453 Rose Clay. A warm dusty rose inspired by weathered terracotta pots, faded brick and the last evening light on old stone walls. 

Together, these five colors became the visual language of The Exact Change. They were mixed, tested and painted while the story was being written, and each one carries a small piece of the world Marian came to call home.

If you'd like to read the story behind the palette, you'll find it here: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0798/1111/7323/files/TheExactChange_1_52af4ba9-c5ff-4115-a380-34c69de4ab40.jpg?v=1783601130