23 March 2013

Little orange houses (+ other orange things)


I've been having some fun with this month's color for the ROY G BIV photo challenge*: orange. It's hard for me to name a favorite colorI like specific shades of red, orange, yellow, green, blue & purplebut orange is probably the one that makes me happiest. Again, it's certain kinds of orange—mainly natural, earthy shades, like terracotta, rust & copper...but just the right intense, bright orange also has the power to absolutely make me swoon.

The image at the top of this post shows a few of the little houses I started working on just last night (only the one at the front has been glued together); they are modest structures of just 4x4x5.5 centimeters each. These first ones all fall within the 'orange' family; one is a bright 'color wheel' orange, another terracotta, and a third iridescent copper. I hope to keep going (though I'm not really sure where I am going), and create one of these in each of my favorite colors of Canson Mi-Teintes. I tend to spend so much studio time planning/experimenting/pondering that it was nice to just run with an idea without over-thinking it. After all of my work with cubes in the last several months, creating a 'net' for a cube-based house was fairly easy, and there's something satisfying about seeing all of those squares & triangles piling up on the paper while preparing it to score/trim. In fact, I almost got distracted by the geometry of the drawing, and seeing where that might lead...


*


This month's challenge also inspired a still life of sorts, composed of some items made of copper & terracotta. They are not very representative of the color orange, especially in their patinaed state, but rather of these materials that are closer to orange than any other color found on the color wheel. Equally fascinating were the undersides of the copper itemsthe tray with the fabulous circular verdigris pattern, the round plant dish, and the 'pencil holder' (which I see now is barely recognizable as being made of copper)but the short bursts of sunshine we had today made even this one shot below nearly impossible...something to try the next time we have a proper sunny day.



*


And next are my usual quartets of images grouped together—a little of this & a little of that, with quite a bit of terracotta & copper. As my daughter commented, there's also a lot of purple. I do find it curious how often purple seems to accompany orange, especially in natural materials like the roof tiles & paving stones found throughout Florence. And sunsets, of course.









 
And here's a little traditional orange...



And one final splash of orange, intensified by a quick moment of sunshine...




* In case you haven't come across mention of the ROY G BIV photo challenge in past posts, it's inspired by artists Jennifer Coyne Qudeen & Julie Booth. Each month is devoted to a different color of the rainbow—red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo & violet. This is the second year, and all are welcome to join in; guidelines are here.



14 comments:

  1. As always, some beautiful and simple images. Yes, your daughter is spot-on in her noting of the purple.
    I am, on personal level, delighted to see these oranges. Being a pink-toned blonde and very prone to sun burn, I don't wear much orange and certainly not near my face!But I remember a suit I had which was a true carrot-y colour. Young enough to get away with it then, it's now a memory.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Aah - memories... I had a similar-sounding, though fairly casual, suit when I was younger too - I recall that my father was quite complimentary about it, but that my mother was appalled (thinking back, I think my mother was probably more 'right' on that one). It's certainly true that colors have their 'place' - and it's not always on one's self!!
      - Lisa

      Delete
  2. Wonderful orange images. For many years, and that is really a lot of years, I didn't like orange! Suddenly I love it, no logic there. When I'm trying on clothes I invariably try on a few orange garments and every time I realise how washed out I look, so I swear I'll never try that colour again. Of course I do keep trying and it just doesn't suit me. Slow to learn I think. However Orange is such a joyful colour, and you have found a marvellous selection here to make me happy. Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for sharing some of your thoughts on 'orange', Carol. I suspect that, one day, you will find something in just the right shade of orange - so keep trying! At least we don't need to wear it to enjoy it...
      - Lisa

      Delete
  3. Lisa-I'm truly in love with those little orange houses! You always go above and beyond and as usual I just am in awe of the gorgeous photos for this month's color. Your oranges are just so rich...and make me very happy!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Julie! I must say I am enjoying the little houses - and have since come up with a 'net' that's easier to glue together. We had such brief little spurts of sunshine the other day that I didn't want to take the time to assemble them all for fear of missing it altogether, so I'm glad to have found a better solution. I may create a template on the computer at some point too, and will share it on the blog in case anyone's interested...
      - Lisa

      Delete
  4. What a wonderful selection indeed. I so much enjoyed them that it's hard to pick my favourites. If I have to choose one or two it would have to be those bicycles - contrasted with purple, I note - and that simple orange and grey fence - another lovely combination.

    Just on a technical note - how do you get those pictures to tile like that on Blogger's Simple template? - very clever and effective. I'll have to interrogate Google for advice....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for visiting, and I'm glad you enjoyed the photos!

      As for the photo quartets, I 'assemble' them first to create a single jpeg image, and then import to Blogger. I had been doing it in a rather roundabout way:
      - resize/sharpen individual images in Photoshop
      - import them all into a Pages document (an iWork application) & arrange one 'quartet' to a page
      - 'apple P' to bring up the printer dialogue and then, in the lower left hand corner, click 'PDF' & then select 'Open PDF in Preview' (another mac application)
      - From Preview, I then export each page as a jpeg (choosing the highest quality/72 dpi), then crop in Photoshop, and - finally! - they're ready

      However, this last group was all done within Photoshop, by creating a 'canvas' the width & height of two images plus a little extra for a border in between. In fact, their placement is a little less precise than the ones I've done with Pages (though surely there must a way to specify this). I resized/sharpened each image individually, and then was able to just drag them onto the 'canvas' and position them each in a corner.

      You will probably find easier solutions by Googling, especially if you have different programs/applications on your computer, but that is how I have managed so far. Good luck!

      - Lisa

      Delete
  5. Hi Lisa - I'm having one of those moments when I come back to see the rest of the conversation; only to realise the first half was in my head and not thru the keyboard! Laugh - I did enjoy telling you how much I LOVE your oranges (that came out as organs first time around - laugh again). Must admit it is a favourite of mine, and with my reddish hair I get away with it every now and again. Somehow it just makes me smile and feel warm and happy - and I think you have done it such a service here - celebrated it in so many positive ways - thank you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, I know that feeling well (of thinking the 'conversation' has been initiated outside of one's head)!
      I'm glad you enjoyed the oranges...I must admit it's felt more necessary than ever with the slow-to-start spring we've been having so far.
      - Lisa

      Delete
  6. PS my alter ego colour is purple so I am always extra happy to see them together. blissful sigh.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Likewise mine - in fact, people often assume that purple is my favorite color... I especially love terracotta with plum - shades that bring orange & purple closer together, i.e. toward red.
      - Lisa

      Delete
  7. Oh.....I've been slow to get here and now don't want to leave. Such luscious and sumptuous oranges.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for stopping, Jennifer - I'm glad you liked this month's oranges/copper/terracotta... It's certainly been fun to pursue ROY G BIV each month, and see where it can lead - thank you (and Julie) for the inspiration!
      - Lisa

      Delete

Thank you for joining in on the dialogue; I appreciate your comments!
{Sorry about enabling word recognition, but I'm hoping it will alleviate the spam.}

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...