three colour palettes, one big failure

Back to colour studies. Some people knit, other people solve crossword puzzles, I "find" colour palettes. Certainly one of my favourite activities.
In prepping for tomorrow's class, I put together three electronic examples of colour palettes (we will be working with paper images and paint chips as well), which became a thematic trio. One of them, I'm sorry to say, didn't work at all, I was surprised to find out how much I'm actually hating it. It happens, and that is why being prolific makes the editing process less stressful. It will most definitely be booted out, yet it presents an excellent classroom opportunity, after all, we tend to learn more from our failures.

This first photo was taken in our Toronto backyard early this spring. We had an  overabundance of dandelions, which personally, I didn't mind at all. I love dandelions. I find their insurgent nature very compelling, and their orbs beautiful, representing nature's intelligence rather handsomely. F and our neighbours beg to differ, but that is a very different story.

The second shot was taken in San Miguel de Allende, México, in early 2009, and frankly, it is by far my favourite palette of the three. I can hardly wait to put it to good use.

This third and last picture was taken in Venice, in a piazzetta very close to the Fortuny museum, in 2008. I loved the quiet sophistication of the flowers hanging from the window, yet, when dissecting the colours, that "orangy brown" is driving me crazy. Like a bad 80's movie, like a bad 80's sofa (it is my very personal opinion that in matters of colour and style the 80's were an unfortunate decade). This is an excellent example of how the palette, when removed from its original context, just doesn't "flow". There is no use forcing the note. The solution: Discard and move on to other successful colour studies. Or just remove the colours that are not working, ending up with a completely different, yet functional palette.