This week’s Mixology Monday color came about in an unusual fashion. Generally, it goes in one of two ways: either I have a specific color in mind I want to mix or absolutely nothing at all and just “feel” it. This week it came from an immensely strong desire to mix something with Smoky Mountain Gray. I had this ‘need’ for several weeks. I don’t know what spurred it, but I just knew I HAD to mix with Smoky. It had been a few weeks since I had mixed any colors. One day I mixed two weeks worth of Mixology Monday colors, and we had a guest blogger, Katherine Farr on another week. So, this week, I pulled Smoky out and started mixing.
I didn’t have a clue to what color I was going to end up with. I had gathered about ten other colors to try with it. I blended and smeared in all of the colors, looking for something that felt right. I had some all of the yellows and golds out. I thought that was the way I was leaning. I mixed two colors and really liked them. Though, once thoroughly dry, I knew it wasn’t. Then I mixed a third color. I let it dry. I thought that it could be the one. Once it had dried, I knew why I loved it. It was very close to Alaskan Tundra Green, but just a tad darker. (By the way, what is a “tad”?) ATG was one of the first five colors I chose for our CeCe Caldwell’s Paints palette. This was getting serious. I had to come up with the color I was feeling, but not seeing.
My great husband was working on dinner and it was almost ready. You know when your significant other is about to serve dinner, you have to wind down your day. I went to my spot on the kitchen counter, so that I could chat with him and work. (That is my excuse for not working in my lab, and I am sticking to it.) I looked at the “Tad Darker ATG” for a few minutes and finally saw it. I knew I needed to add more blue. I mixed and added and then added some more. The color appeared. I could tell from the wet sample it was what I had been feeling all along but wasn’t able to see.
Meet Blue Ridge. Blue Ridge is part Smoky Mountain Gray, part Spring Hill Green (my all time favorite) and part Blue Montana Sky. Fitting name, I believe, since Spring Hill, TN is pretty much due west of the Great Smoky Mountains.
Have you ever driven the Blue Ridge Parkway? If you have not, please put it on your bucket list to do one October. I promise you will not be disappointed with the amazing scenery and fall foliage. The Blue Ridge Parkway is the longest linear park in America, runs for 469 miles, traveling through twenty-nine North Carolina and Virginia counties. It has been designated a National Parkway and an All-American Road. It was constructed to connect the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to the Shenandoah National Park and took fifty-two years to complete, from 1935 until 1987. Thursday, June 25th 2015, the Blue Ridge Parkway quarter will be released. I did not know the Blue Ridge Parkway was getting its own quarter until I started researching the history. So, was this ‘need’ to paint with Smoky just a coincidence or was it fate that I had to paint with the color and find out about the quarter?
Blue Ridge: 5 parts Blue Montana Sky : 3 parts Smoky Mountain Gray : 2 Spring Hill Green
Peace,
Cece
Trackbacks/Pingbacks