Category Archives: COLOUR SERIES

The great American minimalist painter Agnes Martin made her name with epic canvases washed with ghostly, trembling bands of pale pastel colour that speak of memory, love, and her intimate experiences in nature. Pale golden shades of yellow like Mellow Yellow made their way into her striped bands of shimmering colour, invoking the golden glow…

Renowned St Ives artist Wilhelmina Barns-Graham made work with astonishing subtlety, conveying the nuanced patina of rugged landscapes in an array of delicately shifting hues throughout her long and prolific career. Soft, subtle shades of bronzed brown like that of Shiitake Linen weaved through many of her most accomplished works of art, capturing the warm,…

The early 20th century Norwegian Expressionist painter Edvard Munch saw art as a tool for expressing his innermost thoughts, feelings and desires, and the colours he worked with were a vital tool for expressing these intimate moments from his life. Deep shades of brown like Coffee Bean often played a key role, forming dark tree…

Interior views were one of Henri Matisse’s most enduring subjects throughout his career, a theme which allowed him to indulge in his great passion for decorative patterns, surfaces, textures, and colours. Tea Rose’s hot pink was one of the shades he returned to again and again, colouring anything from heavy curtains to lush carpets and…

Dusty Rose Linen’s muted, pink hue was an enduring feature in Pierre Bonnard’s shimmering, intimiste paintings, conveying sunlight spreading across morning terraces, breezing through curtains, or flooding across tabletops through open windows. He had an uncanny ability to breathe wonder into life’s most ordinary moments – from intimate bathing scenes to eating breakfast in the…

French Fauvist painter André Derain was a true pioneer in early 20th century painting, paving the way for abstraction with his dazzling, experimental use of colour. Vibrant, electrifying shades of crimson like Cherry appeared in many of his most celebrated, early career paintings, transforming the French landscape into fiery fields of electrifying light. He said,…

The French intimist painter Edouard Vuillard made a career out of observing the quietest and most intimate moments of his life, which he painted with soft, warm hues like Mocha Mousse, a subtle beige tinged with hints of dusty rose. Sometimes he highlighted these hues with vivid accents of bright colour, creating a dazzling visual…

While her name is synonymous with daring, abstract flower paintings, the great American 20th century painter Georgia O’Keeffe spent the later years of her life painting the dry, barren and wide-open landscape of New Mexico, a place she came to call home after escaping from the bustling metropolis of New York. The pale, parched pink…

During the artist’s so-called Berkeley years, from 1953-1966, American painter Richard Diebenkorn captured the fresh, invigorating air of California with his own inimitable brand of intuitive brushstrokes and playfully vibrant colour schemes. Throughout these years the oceanic blue of Blue Bonnet Linen was a recurring feature in his art, whether depicting ocean views seen from…

In the eerily quiet world of Andrew Wyeth, warm, rustic shades of brown like Chocolate Linen play a pivotal role, colouring broken tree stumps, shadowy interiors, or mounds of dry, crumbling earth. His barren, haunting paintings captured the raw and honest simplicity of his home town in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, and his summer home in…

Bold, vibrant colours are a defining feature in the art of British abstract painter Sir Howard Hodgkin (1932-2017), a powerful means of conveying his innermost memories and emotions. “Don’t paint the thing itself,” he wrote, “paint the effect it produces.” He often brought dazzling shades of red like Firecracker Red into his paintings, laid liberally…

The airy, breezy shade of LIGHT BLUE fabric made its way into many of Claude Monet’s most celebrated paintings, describing the soaring, luminescent skies of spring and summer in his native France. In particular, the colour came to play a key role in Monet’s famed ‘Poplars’ series, made from spring to autumn 1891. In total…

The French Fauvist painter Andre Derain made paintings of France that were charged with electrifyingly bolts of colour, including the blazing shade of ochre seen in YELLOW Linen. Along with Henri Matisse and Maurice de Vlaminck (among others) they spearheaded a new brand of painting that moved beyond the real world into the realms of…

There is a quiet, understated elegance in the art of French painter Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, whose dreamlike paintings and murals came to encapsulate the spirit of late 19th century Symbolism. His timeless models, adorned in drapes and gowns, drift through panoramic scenes, where muted shades like PALE GREEN spill out onto the ground or…

French 19th century artist Eugene Boudin captured vast, soaring skies filled with flickering patches of dappled cloud, which flit between soft shades of pale grey, light blue, and the hazy lilac grey of Grey Pearl. His mastery of cloud painting even prompted Barbizon painter Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot to coin Boudin as the “king of the skies.”…