blue, cobalt blue, Haystacks, Renoir, Starry Night, The Umbrellas, Thenard, Van Gogh, Vermeer

‘Cobalt – a divine colour…for putting space around things’ Van Gogh

15th July

  The metal cobalt has been used for centuries as an ingredient in glass making. It can be found in the luminous bright colours of medieval stained glass windows, as well as in the blue and white pottery of China produced during the Tang dynasty. Then, in the nineteenth century, the pigment cobalt blue was produced...

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Ballpoint pen, Biro, Bleu-Topique, blue, drawings, Faces, Johan van Mullem, Musee D'Art Classique de Mougins, Portraits, Rembrandt

Interview: Johan van Mullem

25th May

We had the pleasure to interview Belgian artist, Johan Van Mullem during his recent exhibition REVERENCE in London, following his successful exhibition Bleu-Topique at the Musee d’Art Classique de Mougins in France. Driven by emotion and human gesture, Johan van Mullem’s art captures traces of ethereal portraits which radiate through earthly tones. Every face is...

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15th century, 20th century, Albert Dürer, Barbara Hepworth, blue, blue and white, blue gowns, classical representation, draughtsperson, drawings, Giovanni Bellini, hands, Henry Moore, Hepworth, hospital, Italy, Leonardo da Vinci, movement, oil wash, orthopaedic surgery, parthenon frieze, piety, postwar Britain, sculptor, St Ives, surgery, surgical process, tendon, transplant, ultramarine

Barbara Hepworth’s Hospital Drawings

9th March

Faded, monumental figures loom out of a haze of muted blue and white tones. Classical in representation and with an air of piety, this drawing looks as though it could be a fresco by an Italian master, fading away on the wall of a stone chapel. In fact, Trio (Tendon Transplant) is from a series...

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blue, blue pigment, calm, copper azurite, craft, Girl with a Pearl Earring, lapis lazuli, love of making, oil on canvas, shimmering, The Lacemaker, ultramarine, Vermeer

The Blue of Vermeer…

30th November

  The much loved seventeenth century Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer remains something of an enigma, even today.   After his death in 1675, unlike many artists, Vermeer did not leave behind any drawings or plans of his paintings, nor any diaries.  Yet we have come to recognise and relish the idyllic quality that Vermeer captures in...

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ancient sculpture, blue, blue pigment, British Museum, cave paintings, cerulean blue, Cleopatra, drapery, Egyptian Blue, Egyptians, lapis lazuli, Mediterranean, pigment, tempera, turquoise

In The Beginning…

8th November

Blue is all around us.  As the renowned British presenter and naturalist Sir David Attenborough reminds us, our beautiful Earth is so abundant in oceans, it is often referred to as The Blue Planet.  Yet, as surrounded by blue as we are, it has not been the easiest colour from which to create pigment. Early...

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