Colour has power. It can move people to feel all the feels. When PANTONE® announced Living Coral as Colour of 2019 I was happy and relieved. “Blush” has had a good run these last several years. From a design and wholesale perspective, I’m kind of over it. I’m looking forward to how a bold hue such as coral is going to transition into the autumn season.
Before I came into the wonderful world of flowers, before I knew names and varieties, my language was colour. I spent years chasing my artistic passions right into university. But before I knew of Picasso and the Group of Seven my dad was the first artist I’d ever encountered. Self-taught and without any formal training he was the one who taught me how to mix pigment. I began with acrylics and graduated into oils. He encouraged me to paint even when I didn’t want to and offered valuable feedback on my work, particularly my large abstract paintings. He commented on texture, composition, and of course colour. So it stumped me when I came to know later in life that he is colourblind. It reminded me of a question he once asked, “Can we ever truly know if any two people are seeing the same colour?”
He asked me that at such a young age that it got me to question my reality. Is the blue I see the same blue they see? When a customer says, “I like red” – what “red” comes to mind first? What comes to mind second? I had to stop asking myself these questions for fear of slipping into some philosophical mind game. But lately, I’ve come to ask different questions and focus my attention elsewhere. It’s not about the colours we can see but the colours we don’t see. The ones blended in or off to the side, hiding in unexpected places. The ones that support, complement, and connect the hues together. I’m always amazed at how floral artists are able to connect their palette before they even begin designing. How do they envision something before producing it? How does the artistic mind fill in those gaps to connect one colour to the next and create a harmonious flow?
Now that we’re coming away from the bold and bright of spring and summer, how do we transition a colour like coral into the fall? This is a time known for more muted tones, warm and subdued. I’ve picked some items that can help bridge the many shades of coral and to help transcend that piece from flowers into art.
View Gallery Below.
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”20″ gal_title=”My Blue Gallery”]
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