Color Inspiration

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Color of the Week – Green

September 6, 2010 in Color Inspiration | No comments

Green, the color of summer in the Adirondack mountains inspired these palettes.

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When hiking in the Adirondacks I always look down to avoid tripping on roots and rocks. I always spot something special like this combination of cool and warm greens

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I adore the lemony greens paired with the blue greens of this balsam’s new summer growth.

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There’s nothing quite like the clarity and color of Adirondack brooks and streams. They’re refreshingly inviting on a hot day too!

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Lily pads tinged with yellow, russet and purples remind me that Autumn is creeping up.

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In some remote parts of the Adirondacks, green hand-routed signs have not yet been replaced by plastic.

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Tags: Adirondack color inspiration, Adirondacks, color inspiration, green berries, green color, green color combinations, green water

Color Inspiration – Fresh Produce

August 13, 2010 in Color Inspiration | No comments

August is a time of lush abundance, when gardens are overflowing with ripe fruits and vegetables. Luckily for those who prefer not to get their fingernails dirty there’s the option to shop for fresh local produce at small groceries and farmer’s markets. I spotted these sumptuous vegetables (grown by Elaine from across the street) at Marczyk Fine Foods in Denver, Colorado. They remind me of the richness of a Baroque still life, like Still Life with a Basket of Fruit and a Bunch of Asparagus painted by Louise Moillon in 1630.

August is a time of lush abundance, when gardens are overflowing with ripe fruits and vegetables. Luckily for those who prefer not to get their fingernails dirty there’s the option to shop for fresh local produce at small groceries and farmer’s markets. I spotted these sumptuous vegetables (grown by Elaine from across the street) at Marczyk Fine Foods in Denver, Colorado. They remind me of the richness of a Baroque still life, like Still Life with a Basket of Fruit and a Bunch of Asparagus painted by Louise Moillon in 1630.

To see more color inspiration click here

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Tags: color inspiration, fresh produce, Louise Moillon, Marczyk Fine Foods, Still Life with a Basket of Fruit and a Bunch of Asparagus, vegetable colors, vegetable still life

Color Inspiration – Maps

July 26, 2010 in Color Inspiration | 2 comments

I admit I’ve been known to use a GPS and MapQuest to find my way around. But deep in my heart those tools have nothing over printed paper maps. There is something about the way a map transports me to faraway places without having to leave my comfy chair. Enticing names like Panther Gorge, Ulan Bator or Nunavik can easily lure me into fanciful daydreams. I trace squiggly lines of ink leading to and from those imagined places with a finger as I anticipate each footstep, paddle stroke or asphalt mile.

I collect maps of places I haven’t been, a reminder that I’m going to go there someday. I save maps of places I’ve traveled, marked up with notes and arrows, frayed at their crease lines from countless unfoldings. Contour maps, road maps and city subway maps, they are all valuable mementos.

Maps have personality and are often quite beautifully and artistically rendered. I pulled some maps out of my overflowing “map box” and have been playing with them as part of a project I’m working on having to do with adventure travel. I thought I’d share these map-inspired color palettes with you.

McKinley

Anacosti

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Munich

Romania

To see more color inspiration click here

P.S. The other thing I love about maps is that they don’t fail you when you’re out of satellite range or if the internet is down.

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Tags: Anacosti map, color inspiration, map colors, McKinley map, Munich map, Nepal map, Romania map

Color Inspiration – The Pantone Hotel

July 22, 2010 in Color Inspiration | No comments

For those in the design world, the Pantone color matching system is a necessary tool in specifying colors for inks, plastics and textiles. With over 1,000 colors to select from, Pantone swatch cards and fan books are never far from our fingertips.

Pantone Book

Welcoming guests to “the center of the color universe”, the Pantone Hotel located in the hip downtown shopping area of Brussels opened last month. The hotel is made up of 59 rooms representing Pantone colors. 70’s inspired, the exterior’s seven floors each correspond to the composition of the chromatic spectrum. The sparsely decorated interior, predominantly white, pops with saturated color.

Guests can sip on cocktails with such names as “Pink Champagne PANTONE 12-1107” in the rooftop lounge, peruse the world’s largest collection of Pantone products in the hotel store, or hire an on-site Pantone color consultant.

What designer wouldn’t want to book a few nights there as part of a trend shopping and inspiration excursion? The people watching and networking opportunities would be amazing!

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Tags: Brussels, color inspiration, Pantone, pantone colors, Pantone Hotel, Pantone matching system

Color Inspiration – Garden Bouquets

July 19, 2010 in Color Inspiration | 1 comment

There’s nothing quite like July when my garden explodes with color. It’s the time of year when I can indulge and have bouquets all over the house. I arrange flowers together that don’t necessarily sit next to each other in the garden in order to spark ideas for next year’s plantings. Sometimes the color or shape of a vase inspires which flowers and foliage go where. Often bouquet color combinations emerge subconsciously in my design work or artwork.

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Tags: Color Inspiration, color inspiration, flower arrangement, flower color inspiration

Color of the Week – Pink

July 14, 2010 in Color Inspiration | 3 comments

I’m not a person who wears, or owns, a lot of pink clothing or things. I love pink, but mostly as I find it in nature where earthy tones remove it from the baby doll, cotton candy realm. I had fun playing around with these summery palettes. Enjoy!

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Tags: color inspiration, Color Palette, Pink, Pink color palette

Color Inspiration – 1929 The New Yorker Cover

July 13, 2010 in 2 Wheels, Color Inspiration | No comments

I look forward to receiving my copy of The New Yorker magazine every week. The cover is always as enticing as the cartoons and articles inside. Since we are in the height of the bike racing season, I thought it would be fun to highlight Theodore G. Haupt’s March 9, 1929 six-day racing themed cover. Haupt’s art deco style highlights a sport that was wildly popular at Madison Square Garden at the turn of the century.

To see more covers click here.

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Tags: 1929 bicycles, art deco bicycles, bicycle race art, bike art, New Yorker bicycle covers, six-day racing, six-day racing at Madison Square Garden, The New Yorker covers, Theodore G. Haupt

Rainbow Jell-O

July 6, 2010 in Color Inspiration | 1 comment

Wondering what to prepare for that next potluck? Tired of making your famous tabouleh or pasta salad AGAIN? Consider serving rainbow Jell-O! Here’s how.

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via: Swissmiss

Tags: Jell-O, potluck idea, rainbow, rainbow colors, rainbow Jell-O

Color Inspiration – Knitter’s Paintbox

June 22, 2010 in Color Inspiration, Knit & Purl | No comments

I just finished up designing sweaters for a client for fall 2011. My last step was to “color” them – to assign colors to the jacquard knit designs. I’m a visual person so I dipped into my “knitter’s painbox” – bushels of colored yarns; some that I dyed myself and others purchased on a whim, to help me pull this last piece together.

It was a nice day, so I dumped the skeins on my lawn and started playing; moving the colored skeins around until I came up with the requested bright and feminine palette.

Sometimes when I’m “stuck” and can’t seem to come up with colors that I like I resort to this simple and enjoyable method.

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Tags: colored yarns, knit colorways, sweater colors, yarn color palette

Color Inspiration – June Blooms

June 21, 2010 in Color Inspiration | 2 comments

The longest day of the year is here and I’m returning to my blog with new things to share after a 20 day break. I really didn’t accomplish all that I set out to do at the beginning of the month, but I did take a big bite out of my to-do list.

It’s been a pleasure working from my home studio again after ten years of “commuting” into town. One of the best things about it is that I witness the minute-by-minute ever-changing shapes, colors, light and textures in my garden; all of which are a never-ending source of color and design inspiration for me.

The fragrance of peonies, honeysuckle, dianthus and roses are intoxicating. June generates an overwhelming parade of blooms, and my garden is always at its showiest and best. Even if I haven’t weeded, or edged, or thinned, it looks lovely.

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Tags: color inspiration, garden colors, June blooming perennials, peony colors, poppy colors

Vintage Switzerland & A June Break

June 1, 2010 in Color Inspiration | No comments

My first blog post this year showed a misty photo of snow encrusted alpine huts from a 1945 calendar printed in Switzerland. I’m floored that it’s already June and that Memorial Day has just passed by.

Motorcycling back home yesterday after a weekend of hiking in the Adirondack mountains, I started ticking off all of the obligations I have over the next few weeks; four work deadlines and meetings, house guests, reunion, gardening, a printmaking workshop, social obligations, a motorcycle rally, getting my studio ready for the sheet rocker, blogging. Eeek! How am I going to keep all the balls in the air, remain sane and still get my daily bicycle ride in? I started hyperventilating into my helmet!

So at this halfway point in the year, I’ve decided to slow down the blogging for a couple of weeks and live my non-cyberspace life to the fullest while the days are the longest. I’m also not going to worry about getting all the winter coats, skis and boots out of the mudroom and hope that my guests don’t notice the dust balls under the couch.

All were liberating decisions, which allowed me to enjoy the rest of my ride home, and to daydream of upcoming blog posts. I’ve uncovered some “unknown” artists in the Outdoor and Snow Sports Industries and will be starting a series about their work when I return. (Please let me know if you know someone who fits this description!) I’ll hopefully have some new work of my own to show after my workshop. I have an ongoing list of artists who inspire that I’d like to share. My garden in June is a continual source of amazement and inspiration.

I’ll be updating my Poppy Gall Design facebook page if you’d like to connect with me there, you can become an interactive part of my studio. Enjoy the next couple of weeks!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxLake Geneva and the Dent du Midi

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Tags: 1945 Swiss Calendar, Dent Du Midi, Lake Geneva, Swiss Calendar, Vintage Swiss Calendar

Looking For Mary J.O.

May 28, 2010 in Color Inspiration | No comments

I love those Saturdays when you leisurely wake up in the morning and have no idea how your day will unfold. Last Saturday was such a day. The day before I’d wound my way by motorcycle across Vermont and New Hampshire with my husband Mike, and friends Judi and Bill, to a campsite on Hermit Island on the Maine coast.

We woke up Saturday after having been serenaded through the night by sounds of the incoming tide, thousands of peepers, buoy bells, chugging lobster boats and drumming grouse.

After breakfast Bill suggested that we find the gravestone of Mary J.O. He explained that he’d taken an award-winning photograph of the stone thirty years earlier and wanted to see it again, though he couldn’t quite remember exactly where to find it.

We all agreed to the idea, and off we went, stopping and traipsing through all the old marble orchards we passed, asking locals where to find others, until we eventually found Mary J.O.’s gravestone.

MARY J.O.

Wife of

Captain David C. Rogers

Died October 21, 1863

31 years 1 mos

Marble appeared to be the choice of stone for the headstones in the old cemeteries along the coast. They bloomed with beautiful orange hued lichen, a color I’d never seen on grave markers before. Perhaps the combination of salt air, acid rain and marble creates the perfect environment for its growth. I was taken by the way the color was taking over (enhancing?) the pretty symbolic carvings.

A lobster dinner and a campfire concluded our leisurely day. We pressed west for home on Sunday morning.

yellow gold

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Tags: Georgetown Maine cemetery, gravestones, Hermit Island, lichen on gravestone, Maine, Mary J.O. Rogers gravestone

« Older entries

Color Inspiration

Color of the Week – Green

Color Inspiration – Fresh Produce

Color Inspiration – Maps

Color Inspiration – The Pantone Hotel

Color Inspiration – Garden Bouquets

Color of the Week – Pink

Color Inspiration – 1929 The New Yorker Cover

Rainbow Jell-O

Color Inspiration – Knitter’s Paintbox

Color Inspiration – June Blooms

Vintage Switzerland & A June Break

Looking For Mary J.O.

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