Colour from the Season - Magpie feather blue

Two for joy!

Magpies have been flying into my field of vision lately. First on a amazing vase exhibited at my open studios a month or so ago by ceramic artist, Jacqueline Leighton Boyce (see below). Then last week I found a single feather across my path, I'm superstitious about Magpies - is that one for sorrow I thought? but when it was followed by a similar feather in the same spot a week later, I decided, two for joy!

Colour wise I was astonished to discover an iridescent cyan blue edging the soft brown along one side of both feathers. I had to draw them because they were so marvellous.

The "Magpies" vase was too beautiful to part with. I love the fact that it has a Magpie on each side, therefore although one is hidden you know joy is just around the corner. It is without any doubt, one of my favourite things...

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Colour from the season - Swallow feather blue

The Swallow's journey back and forth between the U.K. and South Africa is miraculous, they arrive in April and May and usually depart in September, travelling 200 miles a day, maximum flight speed 35 mph! They are such an uplifting sight to see and herald the Summer, (as long as there's more than one of course).

Sadly this Swallow got trapped in a barn last Autumn and couldn't make the journey to it's winter home. Desiccated as he was in reality, I chose to paint him at peace and who knows, perhaps he's already flying in another life.

Such iridescence in that blue - truly extraordinary..!

pencil sketch...

paint before a touch of ink.

Many thanks to Judith for bringing him round for me to sketch, see her wonderful lino-cut prints here

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Colour from the season - Passion Flower blues

I'm starting to think that using slower drying oil paint (in an Impressionist style) might have been a better bet in such very hot sunlight, rather than my usual dip pen/ink/acrylic notebook sketching. Drawing this flower a few days ago in the Pyrenees (where they were wildly rampant), the paint dried before I had time to colour a single petal, the ink persistently clogged the nib, the flower wilted and then closed as I drew it (do they only last a single day?) and I was also wilting in the heat. So...

...not so much passion in the sketch of this extra-ordinary flower, but strength and sharpness of shadow and a fabulously intense colour palette...

  

Phew !

...from my seasonal (Mediterranean) colour sample notebook.

Colour from the season - Cornflower blue

Cornflowers are a very unique blue, looking them up I discovered why!

"The ions that bind in cornflower blue

Roses are red and cornflowers are blue, but both flowers are coloured by the same red pigment. This conundrum has puzzled people for 90 years, but finally scientists have worked out what makes cornflowers blue, publishing their findings in Nature. Kosaku Takeda of Tokyo Gakugei University in Japan, and colleagues, used x-ray diffraction to investigate the structure of the cornflower pigment. They discovered that the bright blue colour comes from the arrangement of four metal ions, which bind to a complex of six different molecules, made up from two pigments. This pigment structure is completely different to the pigment found in other blue flowers. A strategically placed iron ion and magnesium ion give the blue colour, while two calcium ions give the structure stability. "This tetrametal complex may represent a previously undiscovered type of supermolecular pigment," says Takeda".

from The Guardian Thursday 11th August 2005.

They remind me of Van Gogh paintings - perfect with Poppies! Difficult to match such incredible Iron and Magnesium ions against printed CMYK colours(!) but here's my very best attempt...

Happy 4th July! and very Happy Birthday to my son Josse! xx. This is a detail from his Graphic Design degree show at Central Saint Martins a few weeks ago. He's designed a Font which can't swear - brilliant!! See more of his work at.. http://cargocollective.com/Jossepickard

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Colour from the Season - Spring blues

Re-categorising and up-dating a few colour pages from the archive and thought I'd share. A few Spring blues, but not sad - very cheerful in fact! 

Muscari or Grape Hyacinth...

Hyacinth...

Mountain Cornflower...

and my favourite, Bluebell blues...

Original posts can now be found in the category...BLUE!

...from my seasonal colour notebook.

Colour from the season - Mountain Cornflower blue

This looks like a thistle but it's a perennial Mountain Cornflower. In parts of Europe it's been used by herbalists to make an eyewash for tired (blue) eyes. The form and colour of this flower are a bit special, forked blue petals sheltering pink centres and black lashes on the buds...

..from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Colour from the Season - bluebell blue

Enchanted fairy flowers, bluebells are two weeks early this year and the woodlands here are already scattered with their shades of blue. These are our native wild variety, delicate long tubular bells with curling petals...

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Colour from the Season - Hyacinth blues

This hyacinth drawing is part of a botanical series which I designed last year. Lovely to draw as long as you like the intense smell of them close up - I have these in the garden amongst the masses of little grape hyacinths because I like the combined scale (and scent) that they achieve together. These were their colours last week...

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.

Colour from the Season - Muscari blue

These little Muscari (Grape Hyacinths) will soon be carpeting the garden - they have an incredible perfume. Apparently not all are blue - there are lots of varieties, some are yellow and smell of bananas(?) They feel quite 1950's in their style and perfume and I really love them. Drawing them today I realised how the leaves have so much movement, something that I might have otherwise missed...

...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.