I found some yellow!

I wasn’t sure I had any. The exceptional French dyes I’ve relied on for years have been discontinued. Which means, I have what I have: no replenishing from Tinfix (which undoubtedly sounds more beautiful when spoken with the proper accent).

Yes. I’m looking for yellow. The outlines of plants are just that. I’ll take their shapes and choose my own color. Which is not new for me. But continually an exploration.

Much of Ellsworth Kelly’s work was inspired by the Munsell color chart which, I recall, was produced in the early 1900’s. These charts differentiated hue (color by name) from value (how dark or light) and chroma (how saturated a color might be). For Kelly, in his later career, he used only flat colors. And the colors had to work on all three levels. For example, the yellow (much “lighter” than purple) had to be intensified, and the purple muted in a piece that carried them both – the artist was looking for them to seem equal visually.

Wayne Thiebaud, an artist whose work is also noted for its use of color, was also fascinated by the matters of intensity, chroma and hue. He quite succinctly states that value outweighs the other two. He loved using the same (or slightly different) colors, but with varying intensities.

Which brings me back to my yellows. They aren’t the same exact color. And side by side, the differences in value and saturation are obvious. Just these slight variations are already alluring, right?

Color: you have to love it.

So simple.

So satisfying.