“Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty if only we have the eyes to see them.” — John Ruskin
Such solemn earnestness was a hallmark of the Victorian age and much lampooned, but you won’t find me arguing with those sentiments.
Lots of good reading on the Metro yesterday from the April issue of The New York Review of Books, including Garry Wills’ piece on a new exhibit in Ottawa of the paintings and drawings of the eminent Victorian, John Ruskin, “Ruskin: The Great Artist Emerges.” Mr. Wills describes Ruskin’s preoccupation with color, quoting from the Elements of Drawing: ‘He said there is no such thing in nature as a solid color, but colors are ‘continually passing one into the other.'”
And the slate/blue/purple/grey/pink Acacia baileyana ‘Purpurea’ obligingly illustrated Ruskin’s observations on color just before sunset last night.
There is a website devoted to Ruskin’s Elements of Drawing, for anyone itching to get their pencils and sketchbook out today. I’ve got a fishing tackle box filled with mine around here somewhere.
Your photo of the A. baileyana is an apt example for Ruskin’s color thesis, and seemingly changes with temperature and time of year as well. Love those purple/blue intergrades in nature, Cerinthe is another great example.
David, Randy Baldwin of San Marcos Growers asked the crowd at a recent So Cal Hort mtg if anybody’s acacias were in bloom. No hands were raised. He said that seems to be a feature of this mild winter, poor acacia bloom. My young baileyana is too small to be a part of the sample, but my young Acacia podalyrifolia bloomed well. Just a FYI.