What's new about placid blue?

It's not a new color at all. It has always been with us. It is what we want to see when we get up in the morning and look out the window at the sky.

It is one of the top ten Womens's Pantone Colors for Spring 2014, which makes it noteworthy.

See the Pantone fashion color report for Spring here

Placid Blue is a soft pastel that is a wonderful compliment to the strong and bold Dazzling Blue. Pantone describes it as a picture perfect, tranquil and reassuring sky that induces a sense of peaceful calmness.

     Placid blue bracelet upcycled from artist palette


What is great about placid blue:
It is calming.
It works well as a background color.
It harmonizes with soft pastel greens and violets.
It is a great solution for "what to wear with jeans"

Here's a recipe for placid blue, according to Bustanoby's Color Manual, copyright 1939:
It was called Forget-Me-Not Blue

"Slightly neutral tint of blue, resembling the delicate blue flowers, with yellow centers, of this perennial herb, which grows in wet or damp places in the United States, Europe and Asia."

16 parts Zinc White
2 parts Cobalt Blue

Forget Me Not flowers

1 part yellow Ochre
Trace of Burnt Umber

From this list of ingredients I can tell you that placid blue is mostly white with a little blue, and the yellow ochre and burnt umber would act to tone it down. So it is a tint of blue with a bit of its complement added, making it a gorgeous gray blue.

What will you wear with placid blue this season?

Comments

Where it All Started

I have always believed that people love to see behind the scenes in the artist studio. It’s like looking behind the curtain and seeing what goes on backstage, to see how the art is crafted, what tools and materials are used, and how the artist thinks. To this end, I am thrilled to unveil a new video that tells my story of the origins of Parts of Art. A big shout out to the producer and videographer @Moguefilms . Here are some of the pieces seen on the video. Want to see more? visit my shop here

Just add paint!

It’s just that simple when painting with watercolor. This is how I start my day in the studio. Open to a new page, fill a brush with sparkling clean water, and fill the page or pages. Then, add watercolor paint and let it do its thing. The daily studio routine is this: clock in at 9 and paint that page in my journal. I realize that the painting on this page could become a beautiful fabric design, a batiked collage, or an amazing painted wall hanging. But my POINT is that I start my studio day with water on a page and go from there. As far as the illustrated journal, yes it’s true. Any thing done on these hallowed pages could become some great masterpiece someday. But that’s clearly not the intent. The journal is the place to play, to experiment, to express, to answer the question “what if ?” It’s about the inspiring and refreshing place my mind enters once that water on the page turns to color. It’s where it starts. Does it matter

The Making of a Show piece

Earlier this month I made the decision to compete. The competition is for a monetary prize that will be awarded in an upcoming show. This is an art show in which I have participated for the last three years, and, for me, the awards are fairly substantial. I am not usually one to go after awards, but I figure I’m going there anyway, so I might as well compete. The other motivator for me is that I need a new jury image or two. Somewhere along the line I learned that jury images need to show a constistency; the pieces need to look like they are all from the same DNA, so to speak. I have had a concern that my jury images are too dissimilar, and someday I need to make them more cohesive. So someday arrived this week. I had three days off work, so I scheduled studio time to design and build a show piece that 1) could possibly win a prize, and 2) be photographed for a jury image for next year’s shows. I thought I would show you some photos of the w

Parts of Art

Search This Blog