Category Archives: COLOUR SERIES

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…

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…

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…

SANGUINE linen shares an earthy, enveloping warmth with the great French Post-Impressionist Paul Cezanne, who infused his paintings with this glorious, sun glazed terracotta. Famously writing “the truth is in nature”, Cezanne obsessively copied the colour and light in the South of France onto canvas, capturing golden sunlight with soft sandy and earthy hues as…

VINEYARD GREEN linen is the colour of energy and growth, suggesting fleshy leaves and dense meadows of wild grass cast into an oasis of cool shade. French Impressionist painter Claude Monet saw the rich, vital potential of this colour, returning to it again and again throughout his career to convey the depth and variety of…

The delicate pale gold of Straw linen has the iridescence of sand bleached by the white summer sun. Impressionist painter Joaquin Sorolla saw in this colour the power to recreate searing hot Spanish sunlight as it flooded windswept beaches, flapping ship sails, straw hats and freshly starched clothing in his seemingly endless cycle of summer….