Friday, August 17, 2007

Pink Peg




Pink Peg
Oil on gessoed board
$150
sold
I always have a love/hate thing with the colour pink. Especially day-glow pink. And it struck me when painting this how much we take for granted saturated, vibrant, and let's face it - garish colours in our modern world. I guess the most vibrant colours in the natural world are found in flowers, tropical birds and fish. Artist's attempting to replicate these colours in the past have only ever had a few precious pigments to play with. Purples and blues became associated with wealth and royalty because artists couldn't afford those extremely rare and precious pigments unless they had a wealthy patron footing the bill! Even over my relatively short lifetime I have seen a huge explosion in the use of colour around me. When I was starting out painting in my teens I remember it being very special to find a book with colour plates in it! I remember what a big deal it was to get colour tv. In just a few decades the world has become so saturated and awash with colour that in order for anything to be noticed above the noise it has to be in flashing neon or made out of day-glow material. Like this plastic clothes peg. Even with today's modern pigments it is an impossibility to match the day-glow nature of the plastic. Without using the same fluorescent (and fugitive) dyes that is... So it's really a compromise. A bit like trying to represent metallic colours.


3 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:49 am

    Hi Paul, Just letting you know I read/view each of your posts and enjoyed this in one in particular. About 2 years ago I wrote an article that touched on the history of quilting and really opened my eyes up to how much we take the huge variety of colours for granted! Our ancestors didn't enjoy such a vast array! As their knowledge increased the information became so valuable (read as worth lots of money to the govenrment!) that people in the textile industry where actually banned from leaving some countries such as England for fear that information on how to produce certain colours might get out taking away that countries marketing edge! Thanks for reminding me once again how lucky we are! (even if that means we are sometime inflicted with day-glo pink!) Regards, Lisa :) lisasarsfield@xtra.co.nz

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  2. Anonymous9:49 am

    Hi Paul, Just letting you know I read/view each of your posts and enjoyed this in one in particular. About 2 years ago I wrote an article that touched on the history of quilting and really opened my eyes up to how much we take the huge variety of colours for granted! Our ancestors didn't enjoy such a vast array! As their knowledge increased the information became so valuable (read as worth lots of money to the govenrment!) that people in the textile industry where actually banned from leaving some countries such as England for fear that information on how to produce certain colours might get out taking away that countries marketing edge! Thanks for reminding me once again how lucky we are! (even if that means we are sometime inflicted with day-glo pink!) Regards, Lisa :) lisasarsfield@xtra.co.nz

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  3. Thankyou Lisa! THe history of colour, pigments, dyes etc is quite fascinating.

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