Japanese Seasons Watercolour Set, Winter
£65.00
One of the possible byproducts of the situation we find ourselves in is a renewed heightened awareness of nature. The song of birds, the silence of the sky, the passing of the seasons have filled the emptiness of time with a welcome rekindling of earth's motherhood and all the meaning that entails, thanks Nature! With that in mind we have devised 4 palettes depicting each season, having picked out (in a way by no means prescriptive or exhaustive) some colours of leaves, trees, flowers, and feelings propriertary to winter, spring, summer and winter. There is no overlap in terms of colours between the 4 season sets, each set includes 20 distinct colours.
Also consider Swiss painter Johannes Itten's (1888 – 1967) seasonal colour theory - four colour palettes for four types of people each under the sun of a different season - a sort of painter's Yin and Yang if you will.
Of course there is no strict prescription for the use of this set, only a desire to give inspiration - the colours can be used in a literal way for landscape and botanicals, or more abstractly and expressively. They can also be mixed resulting in an even wider range of colours.
Each season comes in a matching box covered in luxury silk screen printed Japanese paper. Each box is made from a different segment of the print and so the pattern may vary.
Very useful too, a letterpress swatch card featuring each individual colour name is included to be painted in for colour referencing. This can come in handy as appearances can be deceiving and each colour is only revealed once wet and set to paper!
We recommend our Aquarella (white) and Aquarello (off-white) for the perfect paper pairing.
Details:
Material: Gansai watercolour
Included: 20 colours in chiyogami paper presentation box and including a blank letterpress swatch card which can be painted in for colour reference.
Vegetarian/ Vegan: No (contains gelatine glue binder)
Non-toxic
Colours Included:
50 - Ochiba-cha - Fallen leaves tea
139 - Honai - True indigo
53 - Fuji-murasaki - A deep, royal purple named after the spectacular Japanese Wisteria.
208 - Amairo - Flax
12 - Gofun - White; this refers to the traditional white pigment made from crushed shells.
44 - Gunroku - Mixed green - traditionally this pigment is made of a mixture of azurite and malachite.
11 - Kuro - Black
220 - Ruri-iro - Lapis lazuli blue
204 - Mizu-iro - Light blue; literally ‘water colour’
64 - Paaru-ao - Pearlescent blue
221 - Tokiwa-iro - Evergreen; this colour in traditional Japanese refers to the longevity and unchanging nature of evergreen leaves, seen as good luck in Edo period Japan.
24 - Kodai-Rokusho - Ancient verdigris - green is traditionally associated in Japan with matcha tea and the ever important tea ceremony.
222 - Aoi-iro - Named after the light purple mallow flower, traditionally used in Japanese medicines.
25 - Shinsha - Cinnabar
22 - Kogecha - Charred tea
23 - Gin-nezu - Light grey; literally ‘silver mouse’
36 - Kin-oudoiro - Golden ochre
2 - Oudo - Ochre; perhaps the oldest pigment, found globally in prehistoric cave paintings - synthetic alternatives to the natural pigment are more frequently used today, as in this instance.
216 - Zouge-iro - Ivory
60 - Gin - Silver
Made in Japan
