Colour palette study: Pebble Beach
I have often been asked after creating panoramic print to reproduce it under a different colour scheme. This request lead to the creation of a set of colour tonal palettes one of which I call ‘Pebble Beach’
My studio is in central Brighton. Early mornings I find myself on my way to the studio through the town or along the seafront. Sometimes half awake surrounded by hues of chalk, seafoam and mint colours. This short walks are perfect for contemplative mood.
Along the promenade you can experience the variation of colour in pebbles of the beach. From the light ochre and dark flint to the hard grey rock that was deposited in the chalk cliffs and through natural erosion is released from the cliffs to slowly make their way through.
The greens of the seagrass over the cliffs and the seakale on the pebbles. For proximity you can also record these colours in the city: in a fiat 500, the shopfront of a takeaway shops, in buses, on bikes and at the North Gate of the Brighton Museum.
These colours and hues have in me a strong emotional and poetic resonances that echoes from poems like ‘Sea Fever’, by John Masefield…
I must down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.
I have gathered these colours and emotions into a colour palette and a collection of prints that I call ‘Pebble Beach’. It encapsulates the specific essence of these moments with a calm a serene feel.
