Bluegreen, aquamarine, summer’s color of sea and sky.
An expansive color of tranquility and well-being,
cool, calming, fresh, and uplifting.
Coastlines and seashells mix colors of sky and water
in subtle shades from blue to green,
the range itself full of movement and light.
In these last days of summer, I hope you can enjoy the beauty of aquamarine, at the beach or by brining it into your home.
All images from Pinterest
Emerald. Sage. Moss. Chartreuse. Kelly, pine, hunter, mint, lime. Juniper. Fern. Shamrock. Green signifies freshness, wholesomeness, simplicity or opulence — nature’s color in a multitude of shades.
“No white nor red was ever seen, So amorous as this lovely green.” – Andrew Marvell
“He recognized that Life itself is an art. He was keenly sensitive to the value of beautiful surroundings. He had that curious love of green, which in individuals is always the sign of a subtle artistic temperament.” – Oscar Wilde
“Even in winter it shall be green in my heart.” – Frederic Chopin
“For still there are so many things that I have never seen: in every wood in every spring there is a different green.” – J. R. R. Tolkien
“Green how I want you green. Green wind. Green branches.” – Federico Garcia Lorca
“Green is the prime color of the world, and that from which its loveliness arises.” – Pedro Calderon de la Barca
RAINBOW HUES FOR THE COLD AND GRAY OF JANUARY
(from my Pinterest board on color)
“Color is a power which directly influences the soul.” ~Wassily Kandinsky
“Color! What a deep and mysterious language, the language of dreams.” – Paul Gauguin
“Mere color…can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways.” ~Oscar Wilde
“Colors speak all languages.” – Joseph Addison
“Adding color to your life brings beauty, richness, and depth.” – Anonymous
“Color is the fruit of life.” Guillaume Appolinaire
“Color provokes a psychic vibration…which acts on every part of the human body.” Wassily Kandinsky
“Colour stops me in the street, invites me to breathe it in and take it with me.” Suzanne Partridge
Color—like sound and scent—is just an invention of the human mind responding to waves and particles that are moving in particular patterns through the universe—and poets should not thank nature but themselves for the beauty and the rainbows they see around them.” ―
Though there are many colors of summer, yellow — bright and cheerful — stands out as the emblematic color of the warmer months. Perhaps because it’s the color of the sun and sunflowers, dandelions and lemonade, and other associations with hot summer days.
“Indicating sunshine during the Renaissance to being one of the primary colours of Cubist art, yellow finds an intrinsic place in literature, allegory and symbolism.
Representing light, hope, happiness, and wisdom, yellow is meant to evoke optimism or natural light with an airy, radiant atmosphere. ” — http://www.architecturaldigest.com
“How wonderful yellow is. It stands for the sun.” — Vincent Van Gogh
“Few artists in history have been known for their use of yellow, though J.M.W. Turner and Vincent Van Gogh are the most notable exceptions” — most famously, Van Gogh’s depictions of the sunflowers and fields of Arles, and Turner’s “sublime and sun-lit seascapes.” http://www.artsy.net
“We find from experience that yellow excites a warm and agreeable impression….The eye is gladdened, the heart expanded and cheered, a glow seems at once to breathe toward us.” — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
“The yellow glistens.
It glistens with various yellows,
Citrons, oranges and greens
Flowering over the skin.” — Wallace Stevens
“The road to the City of Emeralds is paved with yellow brick.” –L. Frank Baum
“Blue, darkly, deeply, beautifully blue.” – Robert Southey
“Blue color is everlastingly appointed by the deity to be a source of delight.” – John Ruskin
“A certain blue enters your soul.” – Henri Matisse
Ultramarine – “The most perfect of all colors,” Cennino Cennini
“Sometimes called ‘true blue,’ ultramarine is made from the semiprecious gemstone lapis lazuli, which for centuries could only be found in a single mountain range in Afghanistan.
Lapis first appeared as a pigment in the 6th century. Around 700 years later, the pigment traveled to Venice and soon became the most sought-after color in medieval Europe. For centuries, the cost of lapis rivaled the price of gold.
Legend has it that Michelangelo left his painting The Entombment (1500–01) unfinished because he could not generate the funds to buy ultramarine blue. Raphael used the pigment scarcely, applying it above base layers of azurite when depicting the Virgin Mary’s blue robe. The Baroque master Vermeer, on the other hand, bought the color in spades, so much so that his indulgence pushed his family into debt.” http://www.artsy.net
“Indigo is a natural dye rather than a pigment for painting. It was used to color fabrics, clothing, yarns, and luxurious tapestries. Unlike lapis lazuli, whose rarity drove its high prices, the indigo crop could be grown in excess and produced across the world, from India to South Carolina.
Commonly considered a shade of blue, indigo is not a separate color in its own right, so why does it get its own band in the rainbow?
Indigo dyeing was especially popular in England, home to physicist Sir Isaac Newton. Newton believed that the rainbow should consist of seven distinct colors to match the seven days of the week, the seven notes in the musical scale, and the seven known planets. Confronting the fact that the rainbow only displayed five unique colors, Newton pushed indigo, along with orange, much to the dismay of some contemporary scientists.” www.artsy.net
“Jean fabric was first produced in Genoa, Italy, in the 17th century; the French city of Nimes copied the technique shortly after (“de Nimes” aka “denim”). The cotton twill fabric, dyed with indigo, was sturdy and washable, making it perfect for workers.” www.artsandculture.google.com
“Blue has more complex and contradictory meanings than any other color.
Dark blue: trust, dignity, intelligence, authority
Bright blue: cleanliness, strength, dependability, coolness
(The origin of these meanings arise from the qualities of the ocean and inland waters, most of which are more tangible.)
Light (sky) blue: peace, serenity, ethereal, spiritual, infinity
(The origin of these meanings is the intangible aspects of the sky.)
Most blues convey a sense of trust, loyalty, cleanliness, and understanding. On the other hand, blue evolved as symbol of depression in American culture. “Singing the blues” and feeling blue” are good examples of the complexity of color symbolism and how it has been evolved in different cultures.” http://www.colormatters.com
“Pink for girls and blue for boys is a surprisingly recent tendency. Even as late as 1927 some fashion stores recommended pink for boys.” http://www.express.co.uk
For a fascinating book on color, read Victoria Finlay’s books.
Images from my Pinterest board on color
Linda Mahkovec - Author 