27 November 2011

Arles 
is one of my colours 
This is how to say the French say it  http://www.forvo.com/word/arles/#fr Quite difficult for our English tongues! 
I named it after a town in the south of France
in the area called the Luberon , famous for the vast deposits of yellow ochre pigments in the hills. 
All the houses are painted in various ochre pigments from bright yellows, earthy yellows, oranges to earth red. 
Famously it's where Van Gogh lived and painted becoming obsessed with yellow. His paintings have heightened concentrated colour 

Arles

 Château Grey

 
Old Ochre
To use Arles,  which is hot and intense, in our homes you need to use cooling quiet colours such as those above or Country Grey or a lightened version of Paris Grey 
Using any blue with it will only make Arles more yellow as blue is the complementary colour - great in a painting but not on a piece of furniture  

9 comments:

  1. What about using Olive with Arles?
    The Van Gogh is beautiful with varying shades of Arles

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  2. Oh yes Olive too! - it's like Château but a little darker.

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  3. You always have a well researched post! Thanks for the background on the color names.

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  4. Thanks Theresa...it's all in my head from years and years of working with paint, pigments and my seven years fine art training !!

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  5. These posts are so helpful. I will use them to explain the colors at my workshops...makes painting so romantic!

    Thanks Annie

    Janet xox
    http://theemptynest-janet.blogspot.com/.

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  6. I just used Arles the other week on a stool for our kitchen and toned it down with white and some dark wax. I love it with my light blue and white walls. Thank you for your paints. I love them.

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  7. Hi Annie! I'm in the USA in Portland, Oregon, a friend of mine in the UK told me about your paint. I was so excited when I found a distributor here and just a few blocks from my apartment! I just got my first two quarts (metric never really caught on here!), Paris Grey and Old White - I can't wait to get painting!
    Pauline

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  8. Old White and Paris Grey are great places to start Pauline!

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  9. When will we see these paints in Australia ?

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