Category Archives: STYLE NEWS

Blue darkness descends across Paula Rego’s disquieting artworks, lending them a theatrical air as strange, unsettling narratives unfold. PRESTIGE linen’s deep blue mimics Rego’s midnight tone, a colour steeped in density, weight and the cloaked mystery of the night. Darkness also fills the content of Rego’s art as exquisitely drawn, macabre characters expose the menacing,…

Vibrant, seductive and indulgent, crimson linen’s entrancing hue brought pulsing lifeblood into Jan Van Eyck’s iconic paintings. Red dye was rare and exotic in 15th century Europe, making it a potent symbol of luxury, wealth and prominence. In his real life portraits Van Eyck draped figures and interiors in this decadent red hue to signify…

Vermeer was a master of understatement, crafting exquisite, enigmatic beauty from quiet scenes of domestic life. AUTUMN GOLD linen’s warm indulgent tone takes its cue from the golden light that ignites these hushed interiors and makes them shine with the gloss of precious metal. Strategically placed strands of complimentary colours including Delft blue and china…

The inky depths of INSIGNIA BLUE linen seeped dark stains into Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai’s evocative landscapes, lending them deep bass tones that hum with melodic resonance. The colour, known today as Prussian, or Berlin blue, swept across Europe in the 18th century, causing what some called a “blue fever”, as it infiltrated painting, wallpaper…

DOVE linen’s near white has just a hint of turquoise blue, mimicking the pale, salty light of JMW Turner’s stunning Venetian marine views. Known as the ‘painter of light’, Turner was entranced by Venice, with its green-blue water reflecting the sky into illusions of infinite, endless space. The floating city became a recurring theme in…

Warmth permeates Rembrandt van Rijn’s paintings as golden, syrupy candlelight falls and disappears into velvet brown shadows. CHOCOLATE linen mirrors the earthy and enveloping darkness in Rembrandt’s paintings, which swarms around the light and gives it torch lit radiance. Rising to prominence during the Dutch Golden Age of the 17th century Rembrandt made his name…

In Vicken Parson’s small, quiet land nothing is quite what it seems. Slabs of grey, trembling shadow fall over darkened walls or barren landscapes, but strange angles, linear patterns and shards of light splice them apart before we can make sense of them. ASPHALT linen mimics the tone of Parson’s cool, mid-grey shadows, a colour suggesting…

ENGLISH ROSE linen’s sumptuous, rustic crimson held great spiritual significance during the Italian Renaissance, clothing figures with indulgent drapes that seem to radiate human warmth. For centuries the colour red was deeply devotional, reserved for Christ, the Virgin Mary and their close circle, symbolising the love, passion and spilt blood of their shared tragedy. But…

Jonas Wood finds beauty in the mundane, as crowded spaces spill over with junk, shelves are packed with potted plants and clashing prints compete for our attention. All this bristling energy is surrounded by soft grey light, allowing steely silence to descend upon his scenes, a nod, perhaps towards our need for stillness amidst the frenetic…

MARIGOLD linen’s rich, ochre yellow is flush with warm radiance, like a late summer sunset. American artist Keith Haring saw sunny optimism and the golden glow of human spirit in this colour, bleeding it into his freewheeling universe of jumping people, barking dogs and graphic slogans. Combining eye wateringly bright colours with cartoonish characters and…

Hovering somewhere between green, blue and soft grey, MEADOW linen has a mysterious ambiguity, like misty fog gathering over a salty sea. In French Impressionist Claude Monet’s hand this colour was transformed into flickering patches of cold, airy morning light or a smoggy, enveloping haze. The mutable, changeable nature of this colour reflected Monet’s fascination with…

RIM linen’s tawny, warm grey features heavily in French Cubist Georges Braque’s palette, as patches of fawn light are cast across dimly lit scenes, creating stillness and tranquillity. Though his early paintings were awash with Fauvist colour, it was Braque’s later, steely grey canvases that defined him as a true pioneer of early abstraction, one…

Moody, sombre and filled with suspense, the silvery blue tone in REED linen was entrancing for British painter Walter Richard Sickert, allowing him to convey scenes lit by a soft, diffused light. From the murky waters and metallic skies of Venice to delicate, intimate interiors, Sickert conveyed a spectrum of subjects with this colour throughout…

EUPHORBIA linen is delicate yet iridescent, with the sharp freshness of ice cold lemonade. American painter Richard Diebenkorn loved the way strands of this pale lemon could bring sunlight into his works, staining them with the colour of summer. Capturing the essence of time and place through light inflections was vital in Diebenkorn’s hugely varied…

MECCA ORANGE linen is backlit with scorching heat, recalling French Fauvist Andre Derain’s glowing, sun streaked landscapes. He was intoxicated with the golden light in the South of France, painting it with heightened colours that seem to buzz with the electrifying energy of life. Looking back on the frenetic brushstrokes and dazzling colours of Fauvism…