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Colour

Restorative treatment for a glutted palette

Thursday, 19 March 2009

Posted by Niki Fulton at 10:22 AM in Colour

Every style magazine you pick up at the moment is telling us, the colour of the moment is green. They say we crave green due to its connotations with Spring, new growth, nature and balance.

This theory is possibly backed up if you look back to the Tang Dynasty around 845 AD. During this time there was very sacred green porcelain named mi se. Victoria Finlay in her book "Travels Through the Paintbox" describes the great length she went to in order to see a sample of this rare colour as she was so wowed by the mystic surrounding it. It was billed as being "secret green-ware only fit for a king". When she finally saw an example of the porcelain in the Famen Pagoda in the Chinese Shaanxi Province she was stunned by the ordinariness. She had imagined a deep fantastical green that you could almost swim in, a celadon that took your breath away with its beauty. But no. She found an ordinary brownish green that looked very plain indeed.

After deliberating as to why this muddied green could be so treasured, it dawned on her that the emperors had been surrounded by gold, rich silks, jeweled chopsticks and sheer unadulterated luxury. They craved what they didn't have - as we all do. What they wanted was something earthy and real and thats exactly what the mi se porcelain brought them. It was a colour that grounded them and brought them back to the beauty of nature.

Now we have had our fingers burnt with our decadent materialistic lifestyles, perhaps we are craving a return to ordinariness too. As generations before us have enjoyed the green paints of verdigris, Lincol Green from woad & weld, Lo Kao from green mud, iodine green, methyl green and malachite green, perhaps we are all seeking a good 2009 green to restore our glutted palette.

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Comment posted by Private Krankenversicherung on Friday, 29 October 2010 at 20:50 PM

You made a few good points there. I did a search about the subject and hardly found any specific details on other websites, but then great to be here, seriously, thanks.

- Lucas

Comment posted by bike sales on Saturday, 30 October 2010 at 01:13 AM

Good post, I always like them

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