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‘When I paint green, it doesn’t mean grass; when I paint blue, it doesn’t mean sky.’
– Henri Matisse
What tickles your mind when you think of delicate blue - a pair of blue jeans, a blue umbrella, a blue sky, or a nostalgic summer day by the sea? What do you feel when you see the vast expanse of the horizon smudged in the aquamarine skyline or the snorkelers soaking happily in the bluest bottoms of the ocean? How do you sense color other than just looking at it? Notions around color reception have been plaguing generations. As far as decoding color symbols are concerned, we could reach that far we were hundreds of years before.
Not only has blue been used to create an aesthetic space in an art piece but it connects to the spiritual realm that is deep and divine, like the underwater abyss. If you are stirred by blue, this blog is ideal for your craving. It will take you to the fathomless depths of blue artworks and paintings, characterized by the magic spell of aquamarine, turquoise or Prussian blue. There are masterworks like ‘Breakfast of a Blind Man’ by Picasso, ‘Emerald Water’ by Margaret Larlham, the famous blue abstract painting by Mark Rothko in his ‘Rust and Blue’ work or works of Robert H.N. Rich Niesse, ‘Starry Night Over the Rhone’ by Vincent Van Gogh, ‘Virgin Annunciate’ by Antonello da Messina,’ etc. to kindle your passion for blue. So, dive deep into these rarest masterworks till you get soaked from head to toe.
Blue Painting Marvels to Unleash an Artist’s Mood
Artists and painters have ever been stimulated by the color aquamarine or Prussian blue, be it Van Gogh blue painting, work of Pablo Picasso, American modernist Georgia O’Keeffe’s contrasting blue & white Clouds series, Claude Monet’s Water Lilies, Kandinsky’s deeper shades of blue, Yves Klein and his concocted color. Did you know the French artist Yves Klein has invented a color called the International Klein Blue? Isn’t that just fantastic to have a color adopted to express the boundlessness of a painter’s utopian universe?
The term ‘aqua marine’ is derived from the term ‘water of the sea’ or aqua marina, that connects to the natural world, like the oceans, sky, waterbodies, and marine landscapes. Egyptians were the first to use blue in frescos as a symbolism for sky, afterlife, and divine objects. The pure and versatile color has witnessed various art movements and forms, from classic paintings of Virgin Mary to the abstract expressionist blue artwork fields of Mark Rothko.
Landscape Paintings with the Aquamarine Blue Effect
“Blue, deep mysterious blue, the color of the depths of the soul, the color of the depths of the sea.” – Paul Gauguin
No wonder aquamarine blue is widely chosen for seascapes and marine landscape art. Artists prefer to count on the soft, translucent hue that captures the depth and the fleeting motions of the water, reflecting light or the sunrays brushing the waves, changing from an ethereal tone of dark blue to pale, turquoise tint. Monet in his ‘Impression, Sunrise’ had worked on this gradual merging of colors, from cobalt blue, cerulean and soft hues of blue, also in water lilies, and coastal sceneries, etc.
In contemporary paintings too, aquamarine is paired with shades of white and grey to mimic the serene coastal scenes. Some celebrated blue artworks are revered for their ability to transform a space, bringing a sense of calm and quiet luxury into homes and galleries.
Atmospheric Works: Aquamarine Blue and Gradients of Natural Light
Painters use the color aquamarine to capture the atmospheric elements, light, and sky; lights that house all the reflections from dawn to twilight, gathering more translucent hues as it moves upward from the horizon. The gradual shift & spread of aquamarine adds depth and infiniteness to the atmospheric canvases.
In one of the nature paintings of the shining stars of European landscape art, J.M.W. Turner, aquamarine is used to communicate the subtle tone of the sky blending seamlessly into the clouds and ethereal expanse. The renowned Romantic painter has used the color blue as a soft hue for most of his nature portrayals showing the sublime power of nature, sunrise, storm and turbulence.
Even in contemporary atmospheric works of art, the use of aquamarine is rampant. Some blue abstract paintings depict dreamlike ambiance with the color blending softly with the sky and water surfaces reflecting soft light, with the subtle gradient effect. Mixed with white and light grey shades, aquamarine evokes an ethereal halo, almost like a diffusing light through the mist or the cloudscape.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the rarest and famous blue paintings and figure out why they still resonate with viewers from antiquity to contemporary abstract modernism.
1. The Breakfast of a Blind Man – Pablo Picasso 1903
‘If I don’t have red, I use blue.’ - Picasso
Pablo Picasso, the unabashed and fiery painter used blue to express desolation and pain subliminally in his in blue period of paintings. His much-talked-about blue masterwork ‘Breakfast of a Blind Man,’ a marvelous creation that centers around the vulnerability and isolation of human existence, allows his viewers to delve into the depths of his creation where the color blue is blended subtly with occasional use of other colors.
2. Emerald Water/ Skiathos Painting - Margaret Larlham
Another candid creation on aquamarine blue is ‘Emerald Water’ by American artist Margaret Larlham. It is a work of pastel on paper, brilliantly portraying the clear water around the jeweled islands of Skiathos, experienced from a boat ride. Margaret was choosy and minimalistic about colors, as she picked only the green, blue and yellows to paint with her impressionist eyes, a beauty beyond measure, an experience worth recalling.
3. Starry Night Over the Rhône (1888) - Vincent Van Gogh
The ‘Starry Night Over the Rhône’ though has a similar backdrop as to his other masterpiece the ‘Starry Night,’ it has less spirals and more calming effect than the tormented sky of the counterpart. The painting holds the tranquil depth of a classic color palette intrinsic to Van Gogh. The color blue and purple are mostly used to paint the town, with a vivid panorama of the city of Arles, where Vincent stayed for a few years. This remarkable work was shown at the ‘Société des Artistes Indépendants,’ Paris, in 1889.
Vincent was enthusiastic and much vocal about his night sky painting as he couldn’t hold his excitement while describing the illuminating details of the scenery to his beloved brother Theo -
“…the starry sky painted by night, actually under a gas jet. The sky is aquamarine, the water is royal blue, the ground is mauve. The town is blue and purple. The gas is yellow and the reflections are russet gold descending down to green-bronze. On the aquamarine field of the sky the Great Bear is a sparkling green and pink, whose discreet paleness contrasts with the brutal gold of the gas. Two colorful figurines of lovers in the foreground.”
4. Rust and Blue by Mark Rothko 1953: Famous Blue Abstract Painting
Large scale blue abstract art like ‘Rust and Blue’ by Mark Rothko is a luminous and emotional piece, layered with spiritual suggestions and a sense of time, deliberately showing his ‘inner lights.’ Rothko worked on oil and egg-based media with simple techniques of gradually uplifting strokes from bottom to the top, moving from the realm of past, painted in dark hues of brown-red (rust) to aquamarine blue as the present, to the future hinted with a darker shade of blue. A closer examination shows the tonal effects, textures, and the indistinct strokes, as if the paint was running towards the top, as Rothko often tweaked his canvas changing the orientation at the later stages of creation. Here blue is used as a transitional tone, denoting movement, depth, and infinite space.
Rothko’s exploration of lightness and transparency in his dominating color-scape of red, brown, and orange is expressed through aquamarine. As the color is related with sea and water, it brings more depth and fluidity, a sense of space and limitlessness to the canvases.
5. Virgin Annunciate: Antonello da Messina 1470, Oil on Wood
The wood on oil piece by Antonello da Messina, with a somber charm and harmony of colors gives the painting an enduring aura. The liveliness of the color blue is as impressive as the face of the beautiful virgin Mary. Antonello was greatly inspired by the Northern Renaissance styles and painted the delicate details of a haunting beauty of adolescent Mary at her Annunciation, while her reading was interrupted by the Angel Gabriel, the divine messenger bearing the news that she would be a mother of God’s son. Her humble blue mantle close to her chest, touched with shades of aquamarine and ultramarine blue displays a divine serenity. The stark and bare background gives ample space to look closely at the figure of Mary, distracted from reading the book of devotions. Her hand is raised as a gesture for Gabriel, though he is not in the scene; as if greeting the viewers, so to say.
Weaving Aquamarine Dreams in Art: A Timeless Hue of Harmony
Across time and space, the color aquamarine has been associated with countless works of art. The symbolism of healing, melancholy, peace and depth attach a sense of harmony that every creation deserves. Artists and painters have used this to symbolize purity, emotional anguishes, a sense of renewal, while painting serene seascapes or surreal abstract expressions in aquamarine. The stillness and the calm of the hue invites viewers to a contemplative plane, where nothing but absolute peace reigns supreme. And, that makes aquamarine timeless and unbound like an irresistible ocean calling…
“Sun-bleached bones were most wonderful against the blue – that blue that will always be there as it is now after all man’s destruction is finished.”
– Georgia O’Keeffe
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