Symphony in Blue

A summer symphony in blue ..... and green.

The cornflower is a much loved summer flower. It grows wild in fields and along country roads. You can find it at farmers markets as well as florists. It lasts well in an arrangement and the gorgeous blue is easy to mix with other colours. Or like here arranged on it's own en masse.  

 I arranged a bunch of cornflowers in an old teacup.

The cup has an unevenly spaced patten of blue flowers on the outside.

The pattern is calld Windflower.

I got the cup many years ago at an antique market in London.  

I wanted to use as many different blue colours as possible.

I found a very pretty blue and white checked ribbon that I tied onto the handle of the cup. 

The whole arrangement sits on a piece of blue and white floral fabric.

On top of that is a white doily, a few light blue paper napkins, two blue ribbons and two different dotty washi tape. 

The addition of green was an afterthought. I was in a charity store...again...looking around and my eye landed on an old book with a beautiful green cover. Well, you know the story....

and the little markers are from an old table game.

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While doing my research I came across two beautiful oil paintings by the American painter Whistler. 

One is called Symphony in Blue and Pink painted in 1870 and the other is called Variations in Blue and Green painted in 1868.

They both hang in the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington DC.

In both paintingsWhistler uses stunning colour combinations. Inspirational stuff!

I am sure a lot of you have heard of The Rule of Thirds.

A design principal used in design, architecture, graphic design and photography.

Within the art and design world you also talk about the rule of three and the use of odd numbers.

The basic idea of the rule is that details and objects that are arranged or grouped in odd numbers are more appealing, memorable and effective than even-numbered pairings.

Here is my version of the rule of three and using odd number of objects! 

Washi tape has quite quickly become my favorite kind of tape.

So of course I had to include some. Both are blue and dotty!

I also would like to show you two other paintings that I came across in my travels in the Internet world.

Both feature strongly coloured cornflowers and both are painted by Russians.

The first one is called Group Portrait with Cornflowers and is painted in 1914 by Igor Grabar.

The second is called simply Cornflowers painted in 1976 by Sergei Osipov.

They are very different, both very beautiful and both showing the intense blue colour of cornflowers.

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I am taking a little break from blogging.

It is summer and time for holiday.

I will be back soon.

Thank you so much for all your kind and positive comments.

You are all amazing!

All the best for now and big hugs.

I wish you a wonderful summer!

xoxo Ingrid