Pearls of color filled with air

Digitally painted photograph

The above image is available in fine art prints and photographs by clicking here

The colors of August

I've written before about the different colors I associate with the seasons and months of the year (like the color of January). August is one of those months that doesn't really have any American holiday attached to it that serves as a good iconic representation of the month the way one can draw a cute little jack-o-lantern in orange and black to represent the month of October. As a child I decided that the perfect representation of August was a big yellow sunshine wearing sunglasses with a smile. Any iconic representation of the beach seemed fitting too. Then I expanded to include sunflowers and black-eyed susan's as well. Over the years bright yellows and oranges have become the colors of August for me--not the more muted russet tones of autumn, but bright glowing oranges that seem to radiate heat. Yes, those are the colors of August for me.

Available as fine art canvas and prints by clicking here

The Fair is in Town

"Pomegranate Jewels" No. 1 in The Fair is in Town series

With kettle-korn and sno-cones
Cotton candy and bright lights
Frozen lemonade
On warm summer nights
Pomegranate jewels turn on
As the sun goes down
Everyone knows
The fair is in town.

Available in fine art prints, canvases, and card by clicking here

The color of January

Red and green are the colors of Christmas. Black and orange are the colors of Halloween. Red and pink are the colors of February with Valentine's Day. And for us in the U.S.A., red, white and blue are the colors of July with July 4th being Independence Day.

Because I'm an artist, I find myself assigning colors to all the seasons and holidays that are celebrated throughout the year. Somewhere in my childhood, I decided that periwinkle was the color of January. I don't know why. I just did. And it stuck.

Like many children that grew up pawing through the large assortment box of Crayola crayons (a luxury item back then), I came to know certain colors by the names assigned by Crayola like "Cornflower Blue", "Salmon Pink", and "Orchid Purple". Crayola has changed many of the names since I was a small, but I still remember the names. So that's why the name "Periwinkle" always come to mind to describe the color of January. It's not really blue and it's not really purple. It's periwinkle.

Interestingly enough, I have an unconscious tendency to dress in the colors that I've mentally assigned to seasons of the year. So when January rolls around, all my periwinkle sweaters get worn a lot more than usual.

What color is January to you?

Autumnal Color Palette

The weather has gotten cooler here at Rosehaven Cottage and has been reminding us of autumn that will "officially" begin here in the next little while. In honor of that, I'm posting a collection of photos that, to me, make up an autumnal color palette. Some may not be autumn flowers or photos but they say "autumn" to me.