Joen Wolfrom’s Playing with Color: Stretching the Analogous Range
Joen Wolfrom | August 18, 2011
Before moving on to the colors of purple, fuchsia, and magenta, I would like to show you some quilts that incorporate an extended analogous color plan—-a range that includes more than seven colors, but not more than half the color wheel. Just to jog your mind—an analogous color plan is one that uses closely-related colors. They are usually side by side on the color wheel, but they can be in larger incremental steps, such as every other color within the range, etc. (If you want more information about analogous color plans, see the post Using an Analogous Color Plan).
The quilts in this post use varying ranges of greens, blues, and violets. This color spectrum is a beautiful range of colors. Nature must like this combination too, as she uses this spectrum often. In the photo above, the hydrangea blossom is just emerging in soft, subtle blends of aqua blues, blues, blue-violets, violet, and red-violets. When the sunlight hits the leaves, the colors flit from yellow-greens through to blue-greens.
You can see similar color ranges in quilts, jewelry, wearable art, watercolors, and other paintings and artwork. In this post you will find four quilts that use this expanded analogous range of greens, blues, and violets. They are all colored differently even though their ranges are similar. Today the featured quilts in this analogous color range are by Chris Porter and Lois Dunten.
My Field House Iris Garden by Chris Porter
My Field House Iris Garden was created by Chris Porter from Bristol, England. Rather than using one or two greens for the quilt’s background, Chris used an assortment of greens ranging from yellow-green to dark blue-green. Using many greens in garden quilts create a more interesting background. It also adds richness to the overall design. Chris’s irises are in blues, blue-violets, violets, and red-violets. Touches of yellow, chartreuse, and golden-yellow are included in several of the iris beards.
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