August 16 is: Colors of Our Lives, stories about our fascination, or lack thereof, with color.
If you look through my home there's very little evidence of how much I love color. This quilted wall hanging is a good example. A few years ago I made this Log Cabin design in a quilting class. The first step in the class was to go through the bolts and bolts of fabric and select the colors and fabric designs for our particular quilt pattern. I naturally headed to these earth and neutral tones while other students laid out bright and bold or soft pastels colors for their quilts.Throughout the house there's very little color. Walls have been painted Porter's Queen Anne's Lace for many years. I have brown leather sofa and chairs. Bed and window coverings are in the same color family as this wall hanging. My closet is a lineup of mostly black and brown with just a touch of blue or red. Hey, I even prefer my dogs to be black, white and tan!
However, if you dig around here you'll find some evidence of color fascination. I dabble a bit in drawing and painting, especially watercolors. Am endlessly fascinated with color relationship and enjoy creating these color cards so when I do paint I can see the nuances of different color combinations in a painting. In watercolor classes I always got in a bit of trouble with my instructors when they tried to limit me to just cad yellow, burnt umber and sienna, cad red and alizaron crimson, thalo and ultramarine blue. I wanted every color tube at Preston Art Supply.
I'm also quite fond of watercolor pencils and have quite a collection. Each kind works differently on paper. The Derwent Inktense colors are very strong, even more so when brushed with water. The Derwent Graphitints are soft, dusty shades that work well for landscapes. The Rexel Derwents and Stabilo Aquiticos keep their bright clean colors even when overlaid with water and come in a fantastic range of colors with names like celadon green and tuscan red.
This week school begins here and I'm noticing all those ads for back to school supplies. If I were heading back to school I'd for sure need the biggest box of Crayolas and that packet of 48 magic markers because every life needs some color. This week when I'm checking out Fun Monday posts maybe I'll try to figure out favorite colors for each of you beforehand. Let's see, I think for Sayre it's probably blue?
Great post Faye, I would love to see some of your art work..love your quilt. BTW Blue is my fave!
ReplyDeleteI seem to be an odd one out as (see blog) I 'had' to wear blue at school.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing (smile). Perhaps in another post, you might give us a peek at some of the work you've done with that glorious range of colours?
Hahaha... yes, blue it is! Though green is finally growing on me.
ReplyDeleteI do like earthtones though. They feel very homey to me. Nothing wrong with those - just add a little splash of color here and there.
Your quilt is beautiful!
I love that quilt and although I don't possess one of my own, I've always wanted one. Must do something about that, I think.
ReplyDeleteMy house is mainly creams and browny/reds, but my garden is a mass of colour and I tend to wear a lot of pink. Love pink and red, oh, and greens too, and...
Excellent post. I love the quilt. Very soothing! My post is up: http://cynicalgirl57.wordpress.com/2010/08/16/fun-monday-the-colors-of-your-life/
ReplyDeleteI love new crayons. I am hoping to make some art for K's room soon. we are also in the middle of painting and all of that, so we're overloaded on color!
ReplyDeleteWe've just been buying pens and pencils for the new term. And the very important purchase of the new pencil case.
ReplyDeleteI love colour and used to paint my walls quite vivid colours. No longer. It's neutrals all the way as it's easier on the eye and you can get away with having bright bits and bobs around.
As for favourite colours - turquoise does it for me every time. That and yellow.