ZAFA palette

The physical painting palette has evolved slowly over time, with only a handful of key innovations spanning centuries. In ancient civilizations like Egypt, Greece, and Rome, artists didn’t use palettes in the modern sense. Instead, they prepared their pigments in bowls, shells, or stone surfaces, typically working at stationary setups. Paint was mixed ahead of time rather than during application. This remained largely unchanged through the medieval period, where illuminators and painters still relied on small containers and trays to hold their colors. Artists at this time rarely mixed colors dynamically; instead, they applied pre-prepared hues in carefully planned layers.

It wasn’t until the early Renaissance that something resembling the modern palette emerged. With the rise of oil painting, artists began using flat, handheld wooden boards as portable mixing surfaces. These boards often had handles or were simply gripped in the artist’s free hand. This was the first time that real-time color mixing became central to the painting process. By the High Renaissance and Baroque periods, the thumbhole was introduced, allowing artists to slide their thumb through the palette and hold it against their forearm or torso. This form, often a kidney or oval shape, became iconic. However, it was never ideal in terms of ergonomics, and was typically shaped for right-handed users, with limited space for comfortable mixing around the grip.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the thumbhole palette became standardized in academic studios. Made of lightweight, varnished wood, it allowed for more pigment placement and mixing space than earlier forms, but it still had notable drawbacks. Artists like John Singer Sargent and Bouguereau used these palettes, despite the strain they could place on the thumb and wrist. As studio practices became more formalized, this palette shape became the norm, with few changes.

The 20th century brought new materials—plastic, acrylic, and glass—but the overall design stayed largely the same. While tabletop palettes gained popularity among modern and abstract artists, the classic handheld form was still widely used, despite its discomfort and inefficiencies. Even as brushes, paints, and supports evolved, the palette remained stuck in the past.

Only in the 21st century have artists begun seriously re-evaluating this design. Despite centuries of innovation in other areas of art-making, the palette has remained largely unchanged, still plagued by the same ergonomic and functional limitations. It's only now that artist-designed tools like the ZAFA Palette are challenging tradition and offering more intuitive, balanced, and efficient alternatives for today’s painters.

Only in recent years have some artists and designers begun to question this form and develop new alternatives—like the ZAFA Palette, which seeks to address centuries-old issues by rethinking the palette from first principles.