Blue
The focus of these photos is BLUE so in all photos you’ll see a blue element or at least something from the blue family. The photos were all taken in March 2011 in Spain and Morocco on a three-week trip my husband and I took primarily to visit Morocco, our home for two years in 1971-73 as Peace Corps volunteers. Our oldest daughter gave me a directive: photograph BLUE as she wanted images for her walls.
It was fun to gather BLUE. There is no shortage of blue in the intricately detailed Moorish architecture. Carved plaster, carved wood, bright colors and compelling shapes could keep one occupied for days on end in any one spot.
I took many of these photos in Marrakech – in the medina, the Majorelle Gardens – and the medina in Tangier. Most of the photos from Spain focus on the Alkasar in Sevilla, a former Moorish fortress and dwelling rich in architectural detail.
The photos from Barcelona are from structures built by Antoni Gaudi (1852-1926), the visionary architect who was so far ahead of his time that his structures are still ahead of their time.
I chose the quotes because I liked them and they spoke to me – they expressed what I felt about the photo/color relationship. In one case, The Doors of Perception, the quote does not mention color but I felt the color seeping through somehow and nothing else seemed to fit.
All the images are photographs on canvas with pigment ink and 1.50” wrap. For questions or inquiries about purchase you can find my contact info on the contact page.
Hope you enjoy Blue.
UNSPOILED BY MEANING: 20"x14". This is a wall in a medina passageway in Tangier, Morocco. "Mere color, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways." -Oscar Wilde, Irish writer and poet, 1848-1873
SUFFERING AND JOY: 20"x16". Wall detail, The Alkasar, Sevilla, Spain. "Colors are lights, sufferings and joy." Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, German poet and painter, 1749-1832
THIS HAPPY HOUR: 16"x22" Majorelle Gardens, Marrakech, Morocco. "Color has got me. I no longer need to chase after it. It has got me forever. I know it. That is the meaning of this happy hour." Paul Klee, Swiss expressionist painter, 1879-1940
LANGUAGE OF THE POETS: 24"x16" Majorelle Gardens, Marrakech, Morocco. "Color is the language of the poets. It is astonishingly lovely. To speak it is a privilege." Keith Crown, American abstract painter, 1948-2010
THE POOR BROWNS: 14"x22" Door in medina, Marrakech, Morocco. "I cannot pretend to feel impartial about colors. I rejoice with the brilliant ones and am genuinely sorry for the poor browns." - Sir Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister 1864-1965
CONNOISSEURS OF BLUE: 24"x18". Tile detail, Alkasar, Sevilla, Spain. "There are connoisseurs of blue just as there are connoisseurs of wine." -Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, French novelist, 1873-1954
EVERYTHING IS VIBRATION 24"x16" Tile detail, Alkasar, Sevilla, Spain. "Color is all. When color is right, form is right. Color is everything. Color is vibration like music; everything is vibration." Marc Chagall, Belarusian-French artist, European modernist, 1887-1985
PSYCHIC VIBRATION 20"x22" Detail of stairway in Riad Maison Do, Marrakech, Morocco. "Always color provokes a psychic vibration. Color hides a power still unknown but real, which acts on every part of the human body." Wassily Kandinsky, Russian-born French expressionist painter, 1806-1944
A CERTAIN BLUE: 16"x24", Door in Majorelle Gardens, Marrakech, Morocco. "Colours win you over more and more. A certain blue enters your soul. A certain red has an effect on your blood pressure. A certain color has a tonic effect. A new era is opening." - Henri Matisse, French Fauvist painter and sculptor, 1869-1954
BREAKING THE BOUNDARY 16"x24" Medina door, Marrakech, Morocco. "I have broken the blue boundary of color limits, come out into the white; beside me comrade-pilots swim in this infinity." - Kasimir Malevich, Ukrainian Cubist painter, 1878-1935
EXHILARATION IN EXCESS 24"x16" Tile detail old royal palace, Casablanca, Morocco. "Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit." - W Somerset Maugham, The Summing Up, 1938
SALT AND PEPPER: 22"x16" Tile detail from The Alkasar, Sevilla, Spain. "Color is like cooking. The cook puts in more or less salt, that's the difference." - Josef Albers, German-American painter and art teacher, 1888-1976
BLUE IS THE ONLY COLOR 24"x16" Mosaic detail from Antoni Gaudi's Parc Guell, Barcelona, Spain. "Blue is the only color that maintains its own character in all its tones...it will always stay blue." Raoul Dufy, French Fauvist painter, 1877-1953
GAUDISCAPE I - NO WORDS: 24X16. Building detail, Antoni Gaudi's Parc Guell, Barcelona, Spain. "I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way - things I had no words for." -Georgia O'Keefe, American artist 1887-1986
GAUDISCAPE II - BLUE CENTERLIGHT 14"x22" Building detail, Antoni Gaudi's Parc Guell, Barcelona Spain. "The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue center light pop and everyone goes 'Awww!' " - Jack Kerouac, American poet and novelist, 1922-1969
THE SURFACE SKIN 14"x20", Door in Marrakech medina, Morocco. "Color is the surface skin that fits over the form." John Sloan, American Ashcan School painter, 1871-1951
THE HOLIEST GIFT: 20"x16". Stained glass window in Antoni Gaudi's Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, Spain. "Of all God's gifts to the sighted man, color is the holiest, the most divine, the most solemn." - John Ruskin, English art critic, social thinker and writer, 1819-1906
DOORS OF PERCEPTION: 16'x24" Passageway in Tangier medina, Morocco. "There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception." - Aldous Huxley, English novelist and critic, 1894-1963
NO CONSTRAINTS: 16"x23" Entrance into a residence in Tangier medina, Morocco. "I ripped through the blue shade of the constraints of color." - Kasimir Malevich, Ukrainian Cubist painter 1878-1935
EVERLASTING 20"x14" Wall detail, The Alkasar, Sevilla, Spain. "Blue color is everlastingly appointed by the deity to be a source of delight." John Ruskin, English art critic, social thinker and writer, 1819-1900