The Never-ending Colour Project

Today was at last the final hand in day of the colour project and I'm so pleased it's finally over! After a month of titillating with minute drops of jaune citron and sleepless nights over the devastating results of adding ultramarine blue instead of cyan blue I can breath a sigh of relief. I have been working on the colour range of Lapuan Kankurit, a finnish textile brand and suggesting how they could enlarge their choice of colours. It's not as simple as it sounds, honest!




Of course I am not saying that the whole project has been a nightmare. Not at all. In fact I think I have now become so tuned in with noticing and analyzing colours that a trip to the Pompidou proves to overwhelm my newly trained eyes. We have completed numerous colour circles during our days of factory line style painting which has provided me with sheets and sheets of info to recognize my Acidules from my Attenués, my Pastels from my Obscurs and my Grisés from my Grisés Coloures. All of which have set me firmly on my way for obtaining a future career working for Panetone.






The French way of teaching has been a bit of a shock to the system. Our colour teacher Blandine Lelong scrutinizes our shades with the precision of a stem cell analyst. About right won't do. And one must continue until perfection is achieved. At this point I have spent a month here and am astounded when I realize I have not yet touched a loom! Or even any sort of yarn for that matter. We have been doing a lot of colour preparation for our forthcoming weave and knit blocks.

For knit we have had to chose a painting currently on display in any parisienne gallery and dissect each colour from the painting. This is really difficult as we are expected to pick out hundreds of slightly varied shades and recreate them with our gouache. I had not fully understood the task and when I presented my 16 colours which I assumed would be ample for a few knit samples I was met with a very discontented teacher. The painting I have chosen is by Edvard Munch and is part of his L'Oeil Moderne exhibition at the Pompidou which struck me as so fascinating that I have already visited twice! It is called Neige fraîche sur l'avenue and it's fluidity and the serenity of its colours really appealed to me.



Choosing one's colour palette from a painting as the initial start of a project is a totally different approach to me. At chelsea we are encouraged to go out, research, take photos, collect, but most of all record marks, emotions, textures 1st hand with personal paintings, sketches etc. I have asked many times whether I should do any preliminary sketches before starting the blocks but am met with a blank gaze. The approach here is certainly far more systematic and ordered. There is less room for experimentation and individualism and instead precision and technical competence are taught. I am eager to see how this approach will be applied when we start on our technical blocks.