usually the title of a blog post comes to me first and the narrative builds from there
seems to be the other way around today... so the writing will unfold and the title will appear somewhere along the way
the new year began with me working on a large project for a friend so there has been no time at all really for my own creative pursuits other than a few small colour trials and some looking back at colour explorations a few years ago
"twilight" is still much on my mind and below are three of the colour trials I've done
still considering ruskin's description of "blue turning into gold" and inspired by the cover of the book I'm reading on the same subject, this first is with indigo ink and a fine gold metallic thread stitched in a flattened detached fly stitch to emulate ripples on water
dark lines reminiscent of tree trunks
next is a misty grey/mauve, another colour of twilight, gold threads again though straight this time, and a stitched tree - it's too literal for my taste so there's more to do on it
the last is smoky-plum, same straight lines for the metallic and also straight lines for the trees
a good beginning but as usual, not exactly what I want though I've been given a new idea to investigate which I think is very promising
this work, along with an email from a friend about her intended colour study pursuits with accompanying reading list sent me off to add to my amazon wish list where I was reminded of a book that was published in May of 2021:
taking the colours and corresponding information from the book "Werner's Nomenclature of Colours", this new book includes over 1000 illustrations of the plants, animals and minerals Werner referenced
and what a book it is
the day it arrived I parked myself in an armchair for an hour poring over it, page by page, each more beautiful than the last
as I was looking at the colours and it's inspiration I was reminded of a colour study I began a few years back, when I first discovered Werner's delightful book
I wanted a reference based on my "tools": fabric, paint, thread and embellishments, so I devised a document on my computer I could print out and work on
below is the first iteration of that idea
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Werner's book is based on colours of things: birds, animals, shells, rocks etc. but there are also things of the natural world that aren't in it such as fog, dusk, storms, etc. and those were the kind of colours that interested me the most
as I worked on this colour study I realized something was missing - my perceptions of the colours and the feelings they invoked were as important to me as the colours themselves so I created another template to include them and added headers to the columns
I can't find it just now but it was laid out so that across the page it would be:
name, paint, thread, fabric, embellishment, perception
I think I want to re-visit that idea so will begin with a fresh list of words to think about in terms of colour and explore from there
I can't think of a better way of discovering what my colour palette is
3 comments:
Firstly, I love the new header image on your blog! That got my heart racing even before I started reading. I remember you making the little colour and stitch samples and thought then, as now, how beautifully you captured the mood of each element you sought to describe. As you know, I now have Natures Palette (and so do a few of my friends… all of whom hold you responsible lol) and I am excited to know that it has inspired you to revisit this past work.
The colours you've shown here are all very subtle.
Isn't it wonderful to have such an inspiring book!
I guess I am sadly lacking in my artistic education because I had never actually given any thought to the fact that things like fog would have colour beyond the obvious white/grey that you would expect. So....interesting to see your interpretation.
Although I'm not a painter the book you reference sounds intriguing so I'm putting it on my wish list at the library.
And speaking of books - have you ever seen 'The Art of Annemieke Mein' or 'Celtic, Viking, & Anglo-Saxon Embroidery' by Jan Messent? I think you'd enjoy them, particularly the first one. They're both on my bookshelf and would be the last books I'd part with.
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