Ava, you are right – the hot colours I associate with Santa Fe and New Mexico look completely different in the cold light of northern Europe. But having said that, the fresh blue skies and bright sunshine today has lifted the spirits rather, even if the sub-zero temperatures are proving a bit of a challenge!
Yesterday I was working with a class of women who were putting palettes of colour together and who came up with this one when I gave them the title “Russian Winter”. We weren’t sure if the red was the rosy cheeks, the red nose from the cold temperatures or the Chanel lipstick of a Moscow babe! We’d also have liked to have been able to add a sprinkle of gold dust in there somewhere.
Everyone agreed that the flash of a surprising colour in a palette can work wonders – funny that the group who suggested the camellia red were all wearing a similar coloured sweater!
Whilst preparing for this class, I called into the local DIY store to gather a few paint sample cards to use. Normally, here in UK, they are in the form of a long strip of half a dozen shades of the same colour but whilst browsing around this rather larger-than-usual superstore, I spotted these
I’m fairly sure Valspar paint has been around quite a while, but I haven’t come across these beautiful paint cards before and as soon as I saw them, I knew I could put them to great use.
I took a while and collected a few ;-)
What’s interesting is that the picture on the front isn’t really a guide to the palette on the reverse.
We reached the conclusion that there was a little psychology involved – if the photograph on the front of the card appealed, then there was a chance that the palette on the reverse would too. The teacup and saucer was from a collection of “antique” colours and the colours overleaf would offer a fitting backdrop to a room in classic style, perhaps?
But no sooner had we worked that one out, than we came across this one. A row of lipsticks – now, what trio of colours might that one suggest?
Bet you got that one wrong, too!
As you can imagine, we had a great day working together, fiddling about and learning how to interpret a theme and stage a display. One thing’s for sure, everyone has an opinion about colour!
