Week 12 - Episode 65 - Faux Blue

There is so much to discover about blue that I could easily devote three months of the podcast to it, but I won’t do that to you (and me).

For this special weekend edition I’m sticking to some of the most fascinating facts about blue. 

Did you know that there are no blue eyes, and that there is almost no real blue in nature? 

What we see as blue is actually the result of a clever way of refracting and absorbing light waves by crystal grids and other constructs. 

Have a look at this brilliant YouTube movie which explains how this works (and shows you some stunning morpho butterflies in the process). 

I now know that Kramer’s Eye is, in fact, not blue, but translucent.  

Yet there are minerals which are naturally blue, and the more stable ones ended up as pigments on the artist palette. You’ve probably heard of ultramarine and cobalt blue. 

YInMn Blue by Mas Subramanian, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49854366

But how about YInMn Blue? 

This deep blue pigment was serendipitously discovered in 2009.  

More stable than ultramarine, and without the toxicity of cobalt blue, it might become a very popular pigment both in art and industrial applications. And the story of its discovery is well worth checking out - you can find Mas Subramanian’s Ted Talk here.

YinMn Blue is brand new - but one of my personal favourite uses of blue was invented back in the 19th century: the cyanotype.

This photosensitive blue, initially used only for blueprints, was first used to create photographs by Anna Atkins, in 1843, making her the first female photographer. 

An entire book of her Algae prints was recently acquired by the Rijkssmuseum in Amsterdam and you can download them in high resolution in the Rijksstudio. If you’ve never heard of her, or seen her work, I highly recommend checking it out. 

Which brings me to the creative part of this weekend edition

What can you possibly do with blue? Here are some ideas. 

1. Blue Buckets

Categorise your daily blues. Take pictures of all the blue stuff in your life and organise it in different ‘buckets’; e.g. good blue, bad blue, or neutral blue.

Or make up your own categories, e.g. like ‘happy blue’, ‘playful blue’, ‘bored blue’, etc. You can ask family members to do the same and compare your sets of blues and corresponding ‘values’. 

I like this blue hue!

2. Personal Pigment

Design your own blue - If you could design your own blue pigment, which colour blue would it resemble? Use the Google colour picker to find your favourite hue, and then think of the perfect name for it. 

3. Blue Hunting

Go on a blue treasure hunt in a museum. Look for blue in all the art works, and try to figure out what type of pigment was used. 

4. Cyanotypes

And of course if you can get your hands on some cyanotype paper, go create your own beautifully blue photo prints. 

Have a beautifully blue weekend, and do share your creations on Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #kramerseye. 

Listen to today’s podcast

Week 12 - Episode 64 - Dependable Blue

It’s fascinating to plot the trajectory of blue in the west from barbarian to divine, royal, romantic and then, in the 20th century, trustworthy and dependable.

Blue, especially dark blue, has become the go-to colour for people, companies and organisations who want to show how solid and trustworthy they are.

Conservative party logos are blue.

Banks love to show how safe your money is with them through blue.

And many car companies have blue logos.

To the average Roman, blue was a deceitful colour. To the average 21st century European or American blue speaks of dependability, solidity, and even safety.

Today, look for blue that communicates this feeling of trustworthiness (whether you believe it or not).

Spot it in signs, logos, posters, uniforms - anywhere someone or some organisation is trying to make you trust them.

And do share your dependable blues on Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #kramerseye.

Listen to today’s podcast

Week 12 - Episode 63 - Daily Blues

If it’s not completely overcast, we are treated to a daily show of blue.

It begins and ends with the blue hour, when the sun sits below the horizon and only the shorter, blue wavelengths of the sunlight make it through to where we stand.

And then the spectacle starts - the sky slowly changes from the deepest blue to a palish hue, with red and yellow thrown in as a bonus, and then back again.

This, for me, is one of the joys of being alive. To wake up to this ever-changing, glorious display of colour every single day.

And if, like me, you’re lucky enough to live or work near the water, it gets even better. Its surface colour changes with the changes of the sky, reflecting and scattering the light.

Dutch light, much beloved by painters throughout the ages, is beautiful - although Joseph Beuys claims its special qualities vanished during the 1950s.

But if you ask me, the light in Venice, with its deep blue lagoon, is even more magical. Every day in Venice is being treated to a symphony in blue and pink. It’s irresistible.

Canaletto, Grand Canal: Looking from Palazzo Balbi, ca. 1726, Gemäldegalerie, Dresden

That’s one of the reasons I love Italian artist Canaletto (1697 – 1768).

He faithfully portrays the buildings and palaces of Venice, but the main attraction in his paintings is blue: the magical marriage of water and sky.

Today, try and capture the daily symphony of blues where you live.

How does the light change throughout the day?

How is it echoed - and changed - by water?

Observe it, capture it and share using the hashtag #kramerseye on Twitter or Instagram.

Listen to today’s podcast

Week 12 - Episode 62 - Royal Blue

I hadn’t realised how political colours could be until I dived into the history of blue.

The rise of blue in the late Middle Ages coincided with the rise of a much more complex hierarchy in society.

The Virgin Mary became more important in worship, and as blue shifted from devilish to divine, she was depicted more and more in an intense ultramarine.

This served to emphasise her importance as it was a very costly blue: the lapis lazuli needed to create the pigment was, at the time, more expensive than gold.

French royalty appropriated Mary’s symbolism - both blue and lilies - in their coats of arms and kings started to wear blue themselves.

Before long blue became the colour to wear for anyone who wanted to show that they mattered.

In a very short timespan blue moved from devilish to divine to royal.

The stunning Wilton Diptych from the National Gallery with its explosion of blue on the panel depicting the Virgin illustrates this shift beautifully.

Today, look for those shades of blue that make you feel positively royal.

What blues do you see, covet or wear that make you feel like a king or queen?

Spot them, capture them and share them using the hashtag #kramerseye on Twitter or Instagram.

Listen to today’s podcast.