Monet at Giverny

Visiting Monet's house and gardens at Giverny, among the many things I was moved by were his dining room and kitchen. I think this was because of his color choices. In his dining room, the stronger buttery yellows played off the creamy yellow colors, finely tuned to the rich hue of terra-cotta floor tiles found on the floor. The walls with their stockpile of Japanese woodblock prints brought in accents of just the right shades of indigo blue. In the kitchen, delft blue tiles were the backdrop to just the right turquoise accents in the furniture sitting on a long expanse of cinnabar flooring. Th symphony of colors showed themselves without looking studied or out of sync - as if they had been there forever.

COLOR HEALS

There is a crossover between light, color, and how they affect our mood. How different our mood on a sunny day vs. a rainy day. Studies have shown that color affects our happiness. AND color heals. Therefore COLOR, should be one of the first things we consider in a room. Never should we think of it as an afterthought.

BEFORE SYNTHETIC DYES THERE WERE NATURAL DYES + PIGMENTS

NATURAL DYES

“How did ‘natural’ ever come to mean earth toned? Consider this: natural dyes have been used to make many of the world’s most beautiful textiles, including the unicorn tapestries, the Persian carpets that decorated Versailles, the suit worn by Gainsborough’s blue boy, and the red and blue of the first American flag. They are hidden among us, in lichens and mushrooms, within leaves, roots, and bark. They’re trapped in insect bodies; enfolded within mollusk shells. Natural dyes are everywhere….”

~Celia Barbour

Here are a few examples of rich natural dyes…and naturally harmonious color combinations.

The color the dye produces is affected by the material dyed as well as the mordant used to fix or stabilize the dye. 

The relatively new man-made or synthetic dyes revolutionized color. These first aniline dye were accidentally discovered from coal tar, the residue of burning coal from both heating and illuminating. In the 1880’s, before the big push by Edison for electricity, coal was the preferred illumination. 

While Nikola Tesla was exploring how to harness lightening as a renewable and free electrical energy, Thomas Edison was turning it into a commodity the consumer would pay for. Electricity was invented in 1802 but not until 1878 when Edison stepped in and fortunes could be made, did it take hold. As the cost decreased in the early 1900’s electricity became the preferred source of illumination.

The twin inventions, synthetic dyes (1856) and electric light bulbs – revolutionized not only our consumer clothing and work life but also our interiors.

Today we take this all for granted - from the flip of a switch to the flush of a toilet. But back then during these transformative years it must have felt exhilarating.

“It wasn’t until the mid-nineteenth century that scholars began to realize there were no white surfaces on the classical Greek buildings we know today as white. When originally built, Doric columns were striped red and blue and the Ionic capitals sported gold. In the mid-nineteen century hundreds these findings were not welcomed. The sculptor Auguste Rodin famously beat his chest exclaiming: ‘I feel here that they were never colored,’ he proclaimed passionately.”

COLOR ~Victoria Finlay

Mr. Rodin’s preference was ‘colored’ by his cherished belief of how ancient sculpture looks today and he couldn't let go of it. 

WHEN COLOR SINGS

Does a bad exist? I don’t believe so. Only bad combinations of color can make them appear inharmonious. Any color, among the right  combination of colors, can have a pleasing effect. 

Candace Wheeler in her book, Principles of Design from the 1920’s said,  “the number, size and placing of the windows will greatly affect the intensity of color to be used. It must always be remembered that any interior is dark as compared with out-of-doors, and that in the lightest room there will be dark corners or spaces where the color chosen as chief tint will seem much darker than it really is. A paper or textile chosen in a good light will look several shades darker when placed in large unbroken masses or spaces upon the wall, and a fully furnished room will generally be much darker when completed than might be expected in planning it.

“For this reason, in choosing a favorite tint, it is better on many accounts to choose it in as light a shade as one finds agreeable. It can be repeated in stronger tones in furniture or in small and unimportant furnishings of the room, but the wall tone should never be deeper than medium in strength, at the risk of having all the light absorbed by the color, and of losing a sense of atmosphere in the room. There is another reason for this, which is that many colors are agreeable, even to their lovers, only in light tones. The moment they get below medium they become insistent, and make themselves of too much importance.”

Even though Candice Wheeler spoke truthfully for her time, she was speaking before new construction through floor to ceiling windows or the fierce amount of electricity we use today allowed for light to flood into the room. Nevertheless, her observations are still applicable.

What does the color spectrum looks like?

what do chinatown, Joseph Hoffman and Frank Lloyd Wright have in common?

Rudolph Shaeffer.

WHo???

Rudolph Schaeffer (1886-1988) a founder of the California Arts and Crafts Movement was my teacher and mentor in the 1980’s. He created one of the most distinctive and successful schools of color and design, The Rudolph Schaeffer School of Design. He had visits from the likes of Frank Lloyd Wright. He had a profound impact on everyone within his sphere of influence and was himself influence by a visit to Joseph Hoffman and the Bauhaus school. He was also transformed by the art and philosophy that sprang up in the early days of S.F.'s Chinatown. He delved into our modern study of color and its effect on human psychology. He imbued all he talked about with a spiritual flavor that issued from the depth of his being.

He believed, "we have to delve into the secrets of color. The reason color study is so important is because color is differentiated light and we cannot live without light." Even his critics admitted, "he spent the better part of a century teaching San Franciscans to make their city, their homes, their gardens, and their lives more harmonious, more beautiful, and hence more human." http://www.thediviningnation.com/beauty.htm

Mr Schaeffer, as we came to call him (or Rudy when he wasn't present), taught us to use a variation of the value (white or black added to color) or intensity (brightness) of the same or analogous color.

He also taught us to bring together colors of the opposite extreme in value - such as purple and yellow: complimentary colors. But he cautioned not to evenly match the intervals (or quantity) of the differences. By introducing a small amount of one or the other related color, this would pull the ensemble together in harmony. At the same time, he recommended bringing a third element closer to one color or the opposite. By doing this, he explained that you keep the interest…and the harmony with just the right amount of tension. This forces eye circulation in a way that is not jarring. (SCALE/PROPORTION/VOLUME Eye Circulation)

How I keep these 3 steps in mind:

1. Select one color

2. Variation of one or the other color in tint or shade. 

3. Select opposing color – which does not have to be complimentary. 

This polarity and integration of the 2 modes sets up the harmony and rhythm.