azure, beautiful shades of blue, blue flower, blue stone, cyan, Cyane, German Romantic literature, Hades, Heinrich von Ofterdingen, Isle of Skye, linocut, love, Novalis, Ovid, power of imagination, Proserpina, sapphire, silky fish, The Blue Bird, turquoise

A Shepherdess named Cyane…

15th November

  One of the most prevalent symbols to emerge from the German Romantic literature between the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries was that of an elusive Blue Flower, or Blaue Blume. This derived from the renowned novel of the period Heinrich von Ofterdingen, published posthumously in 1802 by author and philosopher Novalis. The story centres...

Continue reading
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...

Continue reading