More colour

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!

Hooray!

I have a wardrobe again! 

Actually, that’s slightly misleading, because…

I have a w-a-r-d-r-o-b-e !! 

My hero and I have worked our little socks off today, beating off the perils of dodgy wall fixings and wonky drill bits, not to mention the after effects of a late night out with friends last night.  But our efforts are well rewarded in the most magnificently fitted out dressing room and similarly ordered but slightly smaller storage for my hero’s clothes. 

We are tired but triumphant.  There’s still work to be done, but really, there is light at the end of the tunnel at last.

On my toes

I’m spending rather a lot of time at the office these days.  With the OFSTED visit looming and a variety of meetings I’d have been going to anyway, my very part time job has changed into an almost full time commitment, for the time being at least.  Whilst in the office yesterday I was really concerned that my normally happy colleagues were scratchy and irritable, over-burdened with work and concerned to make sure that they were doing what needs to be done, in spite of cutbacks.

Though I too have responsibilities and more stress than usual, my role doesn’t involve sitting at a desk working on administrative business and I have rather more opportunities to escape it all.  As we were driving up to Birmingham last night to go to a symphony concert, I was thinking how I could bring a smile to the faces of my friends and colleagues when I went into the office this morning.  Since I’m spending so much time there, I’d take my slippers!

Yes, red sheepskin with pompoms…hardly the most discreet design, but sure enough, when I pulled them from my bag and changed out of my shoes, the atmosphere lightened and we made a jolly start on checking some of the files and folders of information the inspectors will want to see.

And then the fire alarm went.

Yes, who found herself on parade with every worker in the building, a class of students, visitors mooching around the car park and the museum which occupies the ground floor, whilst still wearing a pair of red fluffy slippers?  (Because, of course, I couldn’t waste time going back for my shoes or getting my camera, could I?)

But it least it made everyone smile! 

Another page

I’ve been mulling this one over for a few days, unable to identify a piece of text which I could adapt and use for my page four, themed “Goals and Desires”.  this morning, reading one of my favourite blogs, I came across a short paragraph which just hit the spot (words by Vineeta Nair from this book).  It didn’t really matter that it doesn’t fit the given theme at all, I decided, since I liked the sentiment so much.

No need to identify a palette this time either, since I had this digital collection burning a hole in my pocket for a while, awaiting the opportunity to use it.

An afternoon working at my computer, answering various queries from colleagues gave me an opportunity to take small breaks from work and create this rather simple layout which included most of the features taught in this lesson.

What did I learn this time?

• I created an overpainted background
• created a warped text block
• filled type with colour but then deleted that as being way too naff
• painted the edge of the page (and then neatened the place where the label folds over)
• made all kinds of hue and saturation adjustments to attempt to get the colours to “sing” but ultimately felt I had not achieved 100% success on that one.

So, another page done.  Surprising what we can achieve when we’re supposed to be doing something else, isn’t it?

Lesson Five is themed “Introspection”.  Hmm.  Bearing in mind we have OFSTED stopping by work  in two weeks time, I’m thinking that might be a little close to home?

Colour!

In these dreary January days an injection of colour comes as a boost, don’t you think?  Working through those Digital Art Journaling tasks meant that I needed to assemble a few palettes and so far, I’ve found Kuler to be an easy way to find the kind of thing that I’m looking for – or if it doesn’t exist, to create a colour scheme of my own.

But then I came across ColourLovers.

Did I need any excuse to sit and play with a new paintbox?  Of course not!  But oh my, is it fun?

Needless to say, my very first palette was rhubarb…

Find me here and come and play!