Abstract: The color wheel palette includes a generally circular bottom plate with a raised annular shelf and a non-raised central portion, the shelf having a number of spaced color paint wells uniformly disposed therein which may contain color paints therein, while the central portion is divided by raised partitions into a number of color-mixing wells. The shelf wells are sloped downwardly and outwardly from their inner margins to help pool the paints therein. A generally circular cover plate of a slightly larger size and the same general configuration as the bottom plate is releasably stacked over the bottom plate to protect the paint. The cover plate has preferably three groups of three shallower color paint or color-mixing shelf wells which register with the shelf wells of the bottom plate. Each group is prefereably about 120.degree. apart and aligned with a different one of the three central portion color-mixing wells of the cover plate, which register with those of the bottom plate.