Have a look at the colours of these vintage bowls. I see warm, Bordeaux red, I see ochre yellow, moss green, deep purplish blue, metallic blue, rock-grey and whitish grey. I see golden yellow and earth-brown. What a wonderful colours in these seemingly faded vintage bowls.

Which colours do I see? Well, I see a warm red heart against a grey dead-coloured background. Is that what makes this so beautiful? Is it the story of how warm love feels against the knowledge that dead is inevitable? I see a small blue-white line around the orange centre. I see a bit of green on the greyish wood. I see a glowing orange right next to the dead black of the key-hole. Which colours do you see? Which story is there to unlock for you?

Which colours do you see in this old wood? I see the whole range of yellow to deep orange, even warm red. I see grey changing in blue. I see dark grey getting darker till black. There is lots of green, white and dark blue too. Because all colours are the effect of light on wood, and none of the colours shine, this is a very pretty colour palette.

Blue and Orange are complementary colours. This mushroom has all colours of blue as decorative rings around its orange centre. It claims its space by a perfect white edge, saying: ‘Here I am, and here I stop’. Notice how the centre looks like a lava pit in a deep ravine. The different colours of blue show geographical layers. Or is it that this mushroom wants to look like a cut through tree showing its age with its pretty layers? Whatever, it is very beautiful.

Paula

P.S. I have no idea who took the four colourful photos because they were posted on Pinterest before the time Pinterest ensured all uploaded pictures kept their links to their original source. I regret not be able to give credit to the owners of these lovely photos. I hope one day they will add a comment to this post that links their work back to their website or blog.

Paula Kuitenbrouwer sells exquisite fine art cards of her drawings as well as reproductions, and of some drawings smaller business-, gift- or mummy-cards. See Purchase in the header for what is available as well as the price list. In case you like to commission Paula, contact her at mindfuldrawing@gmail.com