I stumbled onto the Natural Pigments website via my friend, Jeff Huckaby. When anything has the tag “rare artists colours and materials” — well, how can you resist? The company and site are based in California and their goal is to help artists acquire hard-to-find art materials. They provide supplies that have been used in “historical painting since pre-historic times up to and including the eighteenth century”. Amazing to find such a company, no? They go further to say that they obtain minerals from mines as far as Russia and resins and other materials from India, Kenya and Malaysia as well.
The reason Jeff called me about the site? It’s because they offer an affordable and wonderful True Fresco Painting workshop. The 3-day class runs $425 and teaches the historical technique “as practiced in medieval Byzantium and Italy”. It really does look like an incredible workshop.
Their newsletters are always full of great information as well. Just in the last three, I’ve learned about the metalpoint drawing technique and the use of oil colors and materials. I enjoy them greatly. If you are in the New York City area on September 14 – 15, they are also sponsoring a free lecture series open to the public at the Art Students League of New York. The subjects include the Origins of Color: Secrets of the Old Masters and Color Theory & Practice. They will last approximately an hour and George O’Hanlon, technical director of Natural Pigments, will follow his lecture with a digital presentation and a question and answer period. I wish I could attend, I tell you what. To find out more, check out the Events column on their site.
I find it fun to poke around their site and read about materials for disciplines such as encaustic painting, tempera, gilding and others. The site also has cool articles (check under each category for “articles”) and a forum to talk about the materials and techniques. Until next time!
Green is a color that signifies life — growth, renewal, healthiness. It is a color that denotes nature and balance and can usually be found within a calm color scheme. Used well, it can help alleviate anxiety and relax both the mind and body. Many famous phrases revolve around the color, such as “going green”, “green with envy”, “green-lighting a project” or “it’s not easy being green”. Mmm…maybe that last one not so much. ;) In entertainment, there is even a “green room” — it is the area a performer can be found waiting until his or her time to go on stage. Interestingly, it is rarely painted green.
Sensational Color has wonderful further information on the color green. In the meantime, I found a few catalog and magazine images that showcase this beautiful color.
Wallpaper or Decorative Artwork
Venetian Plaster on Accent Walls
Unexpected Areas
Overall
I hope you’ve been inspired to Go Green! Until next time, dear Reader!
Image Sources: Architectural Digest, Interior Design, Benjamin Moore, Phoenix Home & Garden and Elle Decor
Hey Fauxology readers!
Suzanne Rosales here, just dropping by to say hello and tell you about this great article I found. Many of you may design and work on your own website and if that is the case, this article is a must read!
Smashing Magazine (one of my FAV sites to read) featured an article regarding applying Interior Design principles to the Web. It talks about incorporating principles such as balance, proportion, rhythm, emphasis, color, texture, and lines to your site just like you would incorporate it into your interior design or while planning your finishes.
Below are examples of balance and emphasis applied to web design. They suggest to not only find balance symmetrically and asymmetrically but to find radial balance in your design elements. Another great tip: Having emphasis on a design piece. For instance, I love the example of the colorful dog on the website (fourth one in the series below). It instantly catches your visitor’s and brings them into your site to find out more. (Tip: You can zoom in on the pics by clicking on them.)
You can read the article from Smashing Magazine and see all their great examples by clicking here – Applying Interior Design Principles To The Web. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
Sincerely,
Suzanne Rosales
A few weeks ago, we profiled the wonderful artist Lynne Rutter. She writes an incredible blog, The Ornamentalist, and I look forward to reading each post she writes. The latest one, A House Inspired by a Jasperware Teapot, talks about how she took inspiration from an unusual source — and created an exterior masterpiece for her clients. Here’s the Before…
…and you’ll have to click on the post link to see the results. You’ll love it, trust. (Jasperware certainly gets around since I’ve also found it to be inspirational.) BTW, in the post Lynne also includes information on how black can be a serious contender for the exterior of your home. I kid you not — I’d slather it on if the architecture of my house would allow it. (Sadly, no.) Have a great day!
I apologize in advance to those who follow me on Twitter or are a Facebook friend, as I already shouted this one out from the rooftops on those sites. Google Alerts was kind enough to let me know that the Fauxology blog was mentioned in a Connecticut Now article entitled “Trick Out Your House with Color” — as one of two recommended blogs to read (the other being the wonderful Color Buzz).
Thankfully, y’all can’t see me doing the I’m a Superstahhhhh! Moves. (Looks like this…)
The article was written by Feng Shui expert Kathryn Weber — a big hearty thanks from me. Click on the link to the article which contains great tips on the addition of color in your home. I particularly like the one about painting your doors a snappy color. My doors are now looking at me like “What? We look good — you woodgrained us already!”. Silly doors — they’ll see a lot more changes throughout the years. Enjoy the article!
Color Buzz is one of my fave blogs. Sponsored by Valspar, their team of artisans really do an outstanding job of writing posts full of color inspiration, history and best of all, provide specific swatch names and numbers. A recent fave opened the door to this blog nibbler: The Shades and Colors of Parisian Doors. (Yes, that was my attempt at a pun. I know…)
Beautiful Parisian Door
We’ve profiled Ann McGuire before on our Blog Beat series, in case you’d like to read more about her artistry and the Color Buzz blog. The Parisian doors post was inspired by a few rainy days spent in Paris. I think that would be a beautiful experience, non? Oui!
As any dear Reader knows, I looooooooooooove color. BUT, I want you to know yours truly can also appreciate the beauty of black & white. I found some gorgeous images for you:
Tile, yes — but doable as a decorative technique with stencils and handpainted elements. I do like the pairing with the bold wall finish. This was profiled in Phoenix Home & Garden.
(Below) The following three images pair black & white with gold tones. Very pretty.
Kameha Grand Hotel (Bonn, Germany)
Nama Rococco Wallpaper
Asarota Mosaics
(Below) Love the glossy black wood flooring paired with the distressed white wood ceiling. Also, the mix of furniture styles and the art chosen. The nicely designed space was profiled in Phoenix Home & Garden. (Love that mag, seriously. Fantastic images.)
Photographed by Werner Segarra
(Below) A collage of inspired black and white fabric patterns on the left and a unique laundry room on the right featured in, yessssss, Phoenix Home & Garden. The laundry room can be similarly recreated using The Stencil Library’s print stencils.
Tell me, would you personally prefer being surrounded by color or the freshness of seeing in black and white?
Benjamin Moore recently sent me an invite to a complimentary webinar entitled Three Centuries of Color. The one-hour webinar offers a look at “the major influences on color, color selection, and design from 1880 through 2010.” (big grin) They are talking my language!
They go on to say that each webinar will cover “six key colors for each decade and highlight the societal, political, technological, and cultural influences on color, as well as inspire new ideas, fresh perspectives, and insight into future trends.” The next one is scheduled for August 17th (1 – 2 p.m., EDT) and registration will be open about a week or two before that date. They also have others planned after that in case you can’t make that date. Cool, huh? Let me know if you sign up!
While perusing pics from my trip to Italy in 2005, I found images of a finish I stumbled upon in one of the hotels. Wish I could tell you which hotel or even which city but I neglected to note that. However, I think it is an interesting technique and one that looks easily achievable with tinted plasters, a grate with a pleasing pattern and a trowel to mess some of it up while still wet. It looks as if they applied, troweled or rubbed some sort of metallic wax or overglaze over some of the finishes when done.
The finish was applied around the room entrances and elevators. Below, you will see Reds & Golds in one area and Blues in another. Isn’t the blue color movement just so visually pleasing? All my closeup shots of the blue are fuzzy. Argh!
Here’s the closeup of the Red & Gold, though…
This one is in ochre tones — there’s a closer look.
The Red & Gold combination continues but here it is paired with beautiful greens.
I love the “messiness” of the finish and the goal of it being not so perfect either.
The artisans in Italy always think in such exciting colors! I really enjoyed the results. What do you think?
Linda Banning, the owner of a new Orlando, FL workshop studio, La Murabella, recently introduced me to a few products in the market. One of these was Perfetto Wood Gels. Now, I’ve been using another water-based woodstain system to color and use within glazes to great success. However, that product is not exterior-rated (ask me how I know) and although we love the wood color options, we’ve been searching for another product that would allow us to use them outside with no fear. Enter Perfetto Wood Gels.
The stains are water-based, can be combined with other products such as glazes, are exterior-rated and are comparably priced at about $20 per quart, give or take. We took a leap of faith and used them recently to woodgrain a set of garage doors — a technique we do a lot here in Florida. The color held and although not as strongly tinted as other products on the market (you will use a bit more), they are much more liquid and therefore easier to stir and blend than other products. So for us, it was a great result.
(above) Before ~~~ (below) After
They have an array of 20 colors in addition to 3 metallics (Gold, Silver & Copper) which can be added to the stains as well as a Black Concentrate to deepen the available colors at will. One of my fave colors is Gilded Walnut, which gives a subtle rich sheen to the stain — very nice. You can check out the other colors available here. If you are interested in learning more, please contact Linda at La Murabella. She’ll lead you down the right path. :) Let me know if you’ve used this product and what your results were, if so. Have a wonderful day!
