Category Archives: COLOUR SERIES

EXCALIBUR Linen’s silent grey hangs in the very air of Gwen John’s paintings, hovering around her lonely interiors like a dark, muffling mist. Best known for her portraits of pensive women in close tones of grey, brown and beige, John masterfully grasped the power of understatement, capturing private moments of reflection in these sitters that…

REDWOOD linen’s deep, throaty red encircles Vigee Le Brun’s subjects, swooping flames of scorching fire around their hair, waists and bodies. Best known as court painter to Marie Antoinette, French 18th century artist Vigee Le Brun was one of the leading portraitists of her day, capturing European aristocrats, actors and writers with her distinctively stylised,…

Pale, sugary sweet colours like that of Light Pink linen graced Jacopo da Pontormo’s heavenly scenes, basking figures, and scenery in an aura of supernatural light. A leader in 16th century Italian Mannerism, Pontormo’s swirling stories were filled with dynamic drapery, floating figures, and heightened passages of colour, taking flight from reality into flamboyantly spiritual…

Claude Monet was entranced by the polished sheen of water, observing with fascination how it could reflect sky and land on its glossy, undulating surface. The subtle metallic shade of HEATHER Linen allowed him to capture the cool freshness of this rippling water, with patches of lilac-tinged sky and cloud scattered across its constantly shifting…

The soft, shimmering blue of REED Linen floods Canatello’s expansive Venetian landscapes, transforming the floating city into a mesmerising, crystalline sea of light. One of the most famous landscape painters of all time, Canaletto made his name with fresh portrayals of his home city, painting wide open skies and metallic water in undulating shades of…

In Giorgio Morandi’s elegantly understated paintings, closely toned shades of peach, cream and ivory nestle together and embrace one another with fleshy warmth. The blushing peach tinge of PRISTINE Linen was one he would repeatedly return to because it allowed him to infuse his canvases with the softly diffused glow of Italian sunlight, whether falling…

The warm, golden grey of DRIZZLE Linen has been in Californian artist Ed Ruscha’s armoury for decades, colouring sun-drenched rocks, pool sides and dry, parched grasses. His sleek photographs, prints and paintings feature bold motifs and punchy slogans that reflect the urbanised commercialism and luxury branding of American life with a knowing irony, particularly in…

Fresh outdoor light breezes through Lilla Cabot Perry’s dappled gardens and shadowy rooms, forming powdery puffs of pale blue, lilac and green. Sheaths of icy lavender like that of SILVER LILAC Linen streak through them and cross clothing, trees and rooftops, invoking the tart, biting freshness of morning. A leader in 19th century Impressionism, Perry…

The dusty, muted warmth of MONTANA GRAPE Linen was the ideal backdrop for Paul Gauguin’s rustic scenes, conveying sun-soaked tracks of earth, dry flowers, or the shadowy layered depths of human skin. A leader in the French Post-Impressionist oeuvre, Gauguin heightened colours so he could transcend reality, combining this dreamy shade of purple with feverish…

The rich, vivid hue of ULTRAMARINE Linen came to define French painter Raoul Dufy’s art, filling coastal scenes across the Riviera with the entrancing, deepening shadows of night. Known today as one of art history’s greatest colourists Dufy embraced a joyous, technicolour approach to art, colouring paintings, prints, ceramics and textiles with tones as fresh…

Dazzling turquoise blues like that of CERAMIC Linen sparkle across Armand Guillaumin’s canvases, lending them the sparkling vibrancy of the French countryside. A leading Impressionist painter in nineteenth-century France, Guillaumin is world-renowned for his luminous colours which capture the glistening light of his native France, from the rural scenery around Paris to the dappled Creuse…

Cold, sharp, and fresh, the pale green tinge of SEA BREEZE Linen billowed and danced through Mary Cassatt’s brightly lit scenes, forming zesty ribbons of dazzling brilliance. As one of only a handful of women associated with the French Impressionist movement Cassatt’s vision was devoted to the female realm; she silently observed the women of…

Blushing crimson reds like that of Tawny Port Linen pulsate across Dorothea Tanning’s fantastical paintings, lending them the passionate turbulence of erotic dreams and nightmares. One of only a handful of female Surrealists to find success in mid-20th century Europe and America, Tanning conjured up brilliantly bizarre scenarios where strange creatures inhabit curious realms beyond…

NINE IRON linen’s steely, dramatic grey with just a hint of crimson became great swathes of deep shadow in the hands of the painter Thomas Cole, sweeping across America’s epic mountain ranges and forming wild, turbulent skies laden with thunderstorms. His momentous landscapes are a celebration of America’s sublime wilderness during the mid-19th century, before…

Dark, brooding and dramatic, the intense blue of COBALT linen was ideal for Renaissance painter Jacopo Vignali’s heightened, operatic scenes. A leading painter in the Florentine seicento, Vignali’s Baroque paintings were defined by flowing swathes of jewel-toned fabric in midnight blues and crimson reds; set amidst theatrical, directional light, these richly toned colours amplify the…