I can’t help but be fascinated by the colour blue. Since childhood I’ve liked blue in its various forms especially turquoise, cobalt blue and navy blue. I’m intrigued how blue can be perceived as negative or sad (feeling blue) yet many people profess that blue is their favourite colour and genuinely like it.
When I told Damien that I had the “winter blues” he gifted me these words:
“…try to see blue as a beautiful sky and not a sorrowful sigh…”
— Damien B. Donnelly
My “blue as a beautiful sky” photo comes courtesy of Pepix who took stunning photos outside her home in Germany. This particular photo gives me such a feeling of fresh air and lightness of spirit.. perhaps I could simply float up into the beautiful blue sky?
From: Wolkentage (where you can see 5 more photos)
If you’ve seen the movie Notting Hill you’ll recall Anna and William’s discussion about the poster of Chagall’s painting in William’s apartment. Anna comments that “It feels like how love should be. Floating through a dark blue sky.” Soon after she adds that “Happiness isn’t happiness without a violin-playing goat”.
There’s a funny little twist to this story. I found a Buzzfeed article that runs through this very sequence and concludes with close-up stills of their wedding cake. Did you know the cake is decorated with a violin-playing goat? I had no idea!
In the absence of beautiful blue sky,
how to avoid a sorrowful sigh?
This photo by Leya caught my eye
From a post by Leya featuring word-photo pairs (this illustrated “polychromatic”)
Posted by Liz; Exploring Colour (2019)
Exploring Colour 
Blue and purple are my favourite colours – I wear them all the time and they make me feel happy and very much ‘me’. So I don’t really understand the ‘feeling blue’…there’s probably some weird old reason for it that’s been long forgotten. To me it means blue skies and seas and summer days – happy times! (And Pepix’s photo is lovely – just the thing to raise the spirits! 🙂 )
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Blue is very positive for you Ann! Pepix is really fortunate to live in such a lovely place and she makes the most of it – happily for us who get to enjoy the photos 🙂
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It’s nice to be able to enjoy Pepix’s surroundings through her lovely photographs! 🙂
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Thank you for sharing my blue picture 🙂 ❤
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It was just what I needed thank you Pepix 🙂
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Lovely details from the movie, Liz!
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Thank you Leya.. finding that article made me happy, the way it ran through the scenes and then gave me a huge surprise when I found the violin-playing goat wedding cake at the end!
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😀
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When asked, I usually will say that blue is my favorite color, but as you rightfully point out, Liz, blue comes in a wide variety of shades and an equally wide range of emotional connotations. For the most part, I think of blue as a positive color, like the blue skies that you featured and as a comfortable color, like blue jeans. In my former job, I noted that well over fifty percent of the men were wearing a blue shirt on any given day (mostly blue oxford shirts). When I think of sadness or boredom, “feeling the blues” or “singing the blues,” colorwise I think in terms of grays. Somehow an extreme desaturation of bright colors seems to be a better reflection of the feelings that accompany sadness. All in all, Liz, I think it is a good thing for us to think about how we feel about colors. I am still thinking a lot more about watercolors than actually doing them, but am quite intrigued by the large numbers of blues, like cerulean, ultramarine, cobalt, indigo, and lots more.
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I really treasure a response like this! A “comfortable color, like blue jeans” made me smile and feel happy. “Singing the blues” reminds me that you’re in a choir. I’m glad you still think about watercolors a lot. So do I. Nigel and I spent last weekend at Bluff and I took along my watercolours with the intention of doing my first painting to send to you. Instead we hunkered down by the fire while it rained, blew and hailed outside. The apartment was dimly lit and not suitable for a first attempt at painting. Did you see Jodi’s orange gladiolus watercolor? it’s amazing!
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Jodi does amazing, inspiring work. Somehow she makes it look easy, but I think I am still a bit intimidated by a blank sheet of paper. 🙂
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I know the feeling 🙂
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such beautiful advice. loved the movie Notting Hill, but missed those things! must watch again 🙂
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Any time’s a good time to see Notting Hill 🙂
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