Tuesday 5 May 2015

A Spring Landscape Colour Palette

I've never been drawn to the colours of the typical spring landscape.

Years ago - probably nearly half a century ago! - I'd paint little water colours of the countryside in winter with fingers almost too cold to hold my paintbrush. And the landscape colours of late summer holidays driving down through France have been know to get my creative juices flowing. 

But springtime? No - the colours of fresh green sprouting buds are just too acidic for my liking, strangely cold and harsh compared even to the winter colour palettes. However, here's an interesting spring colour palette - yes there are a couple of sharp, bright colours - the lemon yellow and the neon green.



So why do I quite like this photo of the park that I cross every time I go shopping, in spite of those bright greens and yellows? 

It's probably because those brilliant colours are offset by some wonderfully mellow tones, especially the colours of the copper beech trees that are more reminiscent of autumn. So that harsh, bright green and 'aggressive' yellow are just accent colours balanced by the more muted, subtle tones all around them. And that way, I find them less aggressive!

But even so, if I were using this palette for an interior or for an outfit or a pattern, I think I'd choose just one of the bright accent colours and it would probably be the green. In fact the six colours on the right-hand side could make a good combination, as could the whole of the top row . . .

Which ones would you choose?



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