Category Archives: COLOUR SERIES

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…

The creamy tone of ANTIQUE WHITE Linen glistened across the great Realist painter Gustave Courbet’s canvases, investing them with the sparkling vibrancy of the French coast. Courbet’s trademark palette was warm beige, sandy or golden tones, applied with a knife to the canvas in thick slabs as rich and heady as buttercream. These streaks came…

Dusk was James Abbot McNeill Whistler’s favourite time of day, when cool temperatures and dwindling light turned colours into an ambiguous, enigmatic haze. Nuanced shades of blue and green like that of TURQUOISE Linen allowed him to convey this bracing evening light as it stretched across misty skies and open expanses of freezing water, merging…

Dense networks of green unfurl across Henri Rousseau’s tropical paradise, colouring grasses, plants and leaves with the juicy vibrancy of life. But with the richly enigmatic jewel tone of EMERALD Linen he creates mysterious pockets of darkness, where magic and danger lurk in the shadows. Rousseau never left France, so his mystical jungle scenes are…

The misty turquoise of BLUE HEAVEN Linen defined the art of 19th century French Symbolist Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, forming distant mountains, hazy shadows or endlessly entrancing blue water. When France was facing political turmoil after the Franco-Prussian War, Puvis’ mystical, icy blue scenes suggested a wondrous, escapist world beyond our own to disappear into….

The dazzling brilliance of SULPHUR Linen filled American artist Anne Truitt’s work with shafts of golden sunlight, encapsulating the glowing warmth of her native Washington. Truitt sought ways of infusing artworks with the colours of her idyllic childhood in Maryland, from dazzling white picket fences to blazing yellow sunlight and glistening stretches of juicy grass….