Colours from Thasos
Week Thirty Three is Lapis Lazuli, Aqua, Light Olive & Sunshine
Print, Paint & Pattern is a brand new, immersive three week long course I've been developing this past year, gel plate printing will be incorporated along with other printing and stamping techniques. It will be running from 14 September to 4 October.
Not sure if a printmaking focused course is for you? Join us for a fun three day mini-course called Play with Print from 11 to 13 September. No excuses, this will be completely FREE and you’ll only need a few materials, a gel plate is not required to do this course’s small scale projects.
Join the priority list to get information about both Play with Print and the deep dive Print, Paint & Pattern that will be sent out later this week.
The island of Thasos (also spelled Thassos) is the most northerly of the Greek islands. It’s known primarily for the purest white marble (that’s me standing next to a mound of white marble) that has been mined here since the 7th century BC. The mines and proximity to important trade routes meant that Thasos has always been quite strategic, and this of course means that there are several archaeological sites found around the island.
We spent a morning in the amazing Archaeological Museum of Thasos yesterday where a comprehensive collection of greek sculptures and artefacts can be seen. The marble sculptures are exquisite, I am sharing some of the artworks on display here.
For this week’s Coloricombo, I’ve taken colours from amphoriskos, tiny glass perfume vessels that caught my eye. With their bright, vibrant colours they look quite contemporary. Actually they date back to the Classical period (around 5th - 2nd century BCE) before the invention of glass blowing.
They were made using a core-formed technique where a core of mud and dung was built around a metal rod. This was then dipped into molten glass to be decorated straight away by wrapping coloured glass threads around the body. The colours used were normally a translucent dark base with feathered patterns in opaque light blue, green and yellow, bracketed by horizontal bands.
You can visit the Thasos’ museum website here and find out more about these amphoriskos from The Met here. To find out more about the manufacturing process look here.
“Amphoriskos”, core-formed glass, Museum of Thasos, ~ 500-100 BCE
Colour Combination
The colours this week are Lapis Lazula, Aqua, Light Olive & Sunshine. Use them along with a contrasting dark and neutral light colour to create an artwork in any medium or style. Know someone who might enjoy a weekly dollop of colour and creativity? Why not share this post with them?
Shapes
Along with the colour prompt I am including some shapes inspired by the artwork which you can download as a PDF and print out to use as you wish
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