Summer garden

Hello everyone! It’s been a long while since I last posted but I’m planning on blogging a bit more regularly, as I’ve accumulated a lot of things to share and I think we could all do with some colour now the flowers are starting to pass.

We spent most of lockdown in the garden, and we’ve been rewarded with some lovely flowers and lots of vegetables. Alex has had a vision for our garden for years but we have always had other things that needed our attention. Not this year!

We now have a lovely pond filled with goldfish and the occasional frog, along with a granite bench made from a huge stone that used to lean against the back of our house. The next project is a summerhouse to give us somewhere to sit when it’s raining (which is quite often, given we’re in Cornwall!).

With the demands of the garden beginning to die down, I’m looking forward to returning to my studio and starting on some new projects. It will be a welcome change to get back to jewellery after making so many face masks!

I hope you and your family are keeping well and safe, and hope you enjoy this snippet of life in Cornwall.

A riot of Livingstone Daisies

The pond and bench, featuring Roxy the cat

The passionflower discovered the warmth of the tunnel… and exploded!

Roxy and me, with a shawl I knitted last year.

Tickled pink

Two brooches I’ve made that seem suited to the warm weather!

The garden is bursting with pinks and reds at the moment, as well as fabulous shapes, so I’ve had plenty of inspiration.

Rules of Colour

Many of the comments I receive when I speak to people about my work are about colour and the colour choices I make.

The same basic brooch using two different colour schemes

The most common question by far must be “what is your favourite colour?” and people are always seem surprised when I say that I do not have one. I believe that having favourites is dangerous for someone who works with colour as it is likely to restrict the choices you make; if you have favourites it means that you also have non-favourites.

I try to be open to every possible colour combination

Sadly for me, having no favourites does not mean that I can escape from having habits and habit can all too easily dominate an artist’s colour choices.

Apparently, I have a habit of resorting to rust reds and burnt oranges

The workings of colour, both from a technical and a psychological point of view is a complex subject but here are a few of my little rules of thumb.

1) How well colour-combinations work depends on context, for instance colours that look beautiful in a landscape would often look very dull if applied tone-for-tone to a small object.

The colours of a pretty landscape are usually very subdued

The great American artist and educator Hans Hofmann taught generations of young artists that no colour exists independent of its neighbours; that the effect of a colour, both perceptually and emotionally, is determined by the colours it is placed next to.

Equinox – Hans Hofmann – UC Berkeley, Berkeley Art Museum

2) When looking at objects close-up, our eyes (and our minds) find it hard to distinguish colour as a completely separate experience from tone and texture.  A flat area of colour is perceived very differently from an area where that colour has tonal variation, particularly rhythmical tonal variation.

This photograph is virtually monochromatic but we see the colour as attractive because of the rhythmic tonal variations

3) For a safe rule when creating colour schemes, use contrasting colours of similar tone or use closely related colours with contrasting tone.

4) Beware safe rules – Harmonious colours are calm and satisfying but nothing excites like an unexpected combination.

The black areas here give sparkle but they break the easy colour rules

5) Take risks – You will sometimes end up with a colour disaster but it is the secret to avoiding repeating yourself endlessly. (Amazingly however, I have found that no matter how weird the colours I use, it is likely that someone, somewhere will like them!)

6) Colourful is not the same as bright. Sometimes very subdued schemes can yield the most interesting effects.

This brooch used very subdued, even dull colours but the scheme received lots of praise

7) While there are lots of useful guidelines, the truth is that if you want to have a chance of really surprising yourself – there are no rules at all!

For anyone interested in learning more about colour in art I recommend the WebExhibits.org pages on Colour, Vision and Art