A Colour A Day week 14; 22nd-28th June

Jo Volley writes …
I am currently working on a timeline of Van Gogh’s colours for the Van Gogh House in London. In a letter to Theo dated 8th April 1888, Arles, he writes;

‘My Dear Theo, Am obliged to write to you as I’m sending you an order for colours which, if you place with Tasset & Lhote, rue Fontaine, you’ll do well – since they know me – to tell them that I expect a discount at least equivalent to the cost of the carriage…‘ He continues with a list of instructions for colours, canvas and carriage then writes…

Jo Volley writes….

A COLOUR A DAY – Week 8; 11^th – 17^th  May

This week’s colours are from the sea and to accompany them you can hear Janet Baker singing ‘Where Corals Lie’. The music is from  Edward Elgar’s Sea Pictures, words by Richard Garnett.

The deeps have music soft and low
When winds awake the airy spry,
It lures me, lures me on to go
And see the land where corals lie.
The land, the land, where corals lie.

1. Cuttlefish
2. Oyster shell
3. Tyrian Purple
4. Squid
5. Coral
6. Pearl
7. Octopus

A COLOUR A DAY – Week ;  4^th – 10^th  May

Jo Volley writes……

This week’s colours are a homage to our key workers and are from Winsor & Newton’s Professional watercolour range.

The rainbow mirrors human aims and actions. Think,  and more clearly wilt though grasp it, seeing Life is but light in many-hued reflection; Goethe Reflection,Thinking, Mirrors

1. Cadmium Red
2. Cadmium Orange
3. Cadmium Yellow
4. Cobalt Turquoise
5. Winsor Blue
6. Indigo
7. Dioxazine Violet

Jo Volley writes….

A COLOUR A DAY – Week 5 –-20^th  -26^th  April  are 7 historic blues bound in gum arabic.

‘We love to contemplate blue, not because it advances to us, but because it draws us after it.’ Goethe

1. Genuine Ultramarine blue
2. Ultramarine Ash
3. Ploss Blue
4. Egyptian Blue
5. Han Blue
6. Azurite
7. Smalt

A COLOUR A DAY – Week 4 – 13^th -19^th April

Jo Volley writes …

For Week 4, here are 7 green earth pigments from various locations from around the world.

‘I kept putting the same colour on – the same colour, the same colour – but every time I put it on it was different. Each time it was this whole new light/colour experience. It was not a revelation, but a whole wonderful new experience… To me, it involves harnessing some of the powers of the earth. Harnessing and communicating.’  Brice Marden on terre vert

1. Bavaria
2. Verona
3. Cyprus
4. Austria
5. France
6. Russia
7. Poland

Jo Volley, 19 April 2020

A COLOUR A DAY – Week  3; 6^th  – 12^th   April

Jo Volley writes …

These are iridescent colours from the Lefranc Bourgeois Flashe Vinyl Arylics collection.

1. Blue Cendre
2. Rose de Parme
3. Stil de Grain
4. Gris Rose
5. Or Clair
6. Terre Verte
7. Bronze

Jo Volley, 12 April 2020

A Colour A Day is a year-long project by Jo Volley, which began on the first World Pigment Day, 22 March 2020,  to celebrate one colour each day by recording a swatch. This is the post of colours created for Week 2; 30^th March – 5^th April.

This week’s contributions are group of colours made from natural sources that Jo has collected and prepared as pigments.

1. Iron Gall Ink
2. Hampstead Heath Ochre no.6
3. Pomegranate Ink
4. Hampstead Heath Ochre no.3
5. Cork Black
6. Prespes Red Ochre
7. Bone Black

A Colour A Day is a year-long project to celebrate one colour each day by recording a swatch of it.

International Colour Day and World Pigment Day fall respectively on the 21^st and 22^nd of March. The project started on 23rd March which was coincidentally also the day lockdown began in the UK.

It has begun with the Liquitex Heavy Body Cadmium Free range of 7 colours, as seen here,  and tomorrow will progress onto a range of natural colours.

Jo Volley, 30 March 2020

Day 1. Yellow Light

Day 2. Yellow Medium

Day 3. Yellow Deep

Day 4. Orange

Day 5. Red Light

Day 6. Red Medium

Day 7. Red Deep