I am a fan of a much ignored color team. So I'm making a midnight wramble through some silliness about a color of undervalued beauty.
Behold! Umber, in it's glory! Let's celebrate it and all it's close cousins, raw or burnt, Sienna or Ochre, tan or brown.
But mostly Umber. we really couldn't live without it. Much of the earth is gradient shades of umber. Many birds species have some shade of umber on their feathered little bodies. So many animals, including the reptiles, have umber colors on the patterns on their fur and skins, as a disguise from preditors, or to slip unnoticed upon their prey. Wingless neon animals are hardly ever seen these days. Dun colored cows have a claim to practicality as well as to beauty. Holsteins stand out on a dusty hill, but the little Jersey just blends right in.
In the world of art, no old world master could have painted masterpieces without Umber, even "Night Watch" needed it.
I'm happy to be seeing yarn that is made with umber colors running through it, with deep sea blues and lovely almost sea greens trotting right behind. Umber might be the color that gets ignored, or even despised, but it is no less important in the scheme of things. Umber is a serious piece of our contentment, when we think about it correctly. It's a rest for the eyes.
Thank you for the education and for sticking up for an underdog, colorwise.
ReplyDeleteI love umber colors, too. Have you read Color: A Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finlay? It's one of my favorite books about color (of course!).
ReplyDeletePoor umber. I like it, if it's not really dark, more orange.
ReplyDeleteHi Jessie. I like underdogs, and even under the radar undertones. ;o)
ReplyDeleteJane, hi, I looked in the library system here and the two copies are checked out. I'll have to wait a bit on them but she has a jewelry book, too. oooOOOoo. That one is in.
Hi ar. I like orangish umbers. Rufus, is that what it's called. It's a color on barn swallows and also Rufus towhees. And my doggie!