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Page 44
Though green (at all events in England) is the colour widest used by
Nature, yet there is not so much bright green used by her as many
people seem to think; the most of it being used for a week or two in
spring, when the leafage is small, and blended with the greys and
other negative colours of the twigs; when 'leaves grow large and
long,' as the ballad has it, they also grow grey. I believe it has
been noted by Mr. Ruskin, and it certainly seems true, that the
pleasure we take in the young spring foliage comes largely from its
tenderness of tone rather than its brightness of hue. Anyhow, you
may be sure that if we try to outdo Nature's green tints on our
walls we shall fail, and make ourselves uncomfortable to boot. We
must, in short, be very careful of bright greens, and seldom, if
ever, use them at once bright and strong.
On the other hand, do not fall into the trap of a dingy bilious-
looking yellow-green, a colour to which I have a special and
personal hatred, because (if you will excuse my mentioning personal
matters) I have been supposed to have somewhat brought it into
vogue. I assure you I am not really responsible for it.
The truth is, that to get a green that is at once pure and neither
cold nor rank, and not too bright to live with, is of simple things
as difficult as anything a decorator has to do; but it can be done,-
-and without the help of special material; and when done such a
green is so useful, and so restful to the eyes, that in this matter
also we are bound to follow Nature and make large use of that work-
a-day colour green.
But if green be called a work-a-day colour, surely blue must be
called the holiday one, and those who long most for bright colours
may please themselves most with it; for if you duly guard against
getting it cold if it tend towards red, or rank if it tend towards
green, you need not be much afraid of its brightness. Now, as red
is above all a dyer's colour, so blue is especially a pigment and an
enamel colour; the world is rich in insoluble blues, many of which
are practically indestructible.
I have said that there are not many tints fit to colour a wall with:
this is my list of them as far as I know; a solid red, not very
deep, but rather describable as a full pink, and toned both with
yellow and blue, a very fine colour if you can hit it; a light
orangy pink, to be used rather sparingly. A pale golden tint, i.e.,
a yellowish-brown; a very difficult colour to hit. A colour between
these two last; call it pale copper colour. All these three you
must be careful over, for if you get them muddy or dirty you are
lost.
Tints of green from pure and pale to deepish and grey: always
remembering that the purer the paler, and the deeper the greyer.
Tints of pure pale blue from a greenish one, the colour of a
starling's egg, to a grey ultramarine colour, hard to use because so
full of colour, but incomparable when right. In these you must
carefully avoid the point at which the green overcomes the blue and
turns it rank, or that at which the red overcomes the blue and
produces those woeful hues of pale lavender and starch blue which
have not seldom been favourites with decorators of elegant drawing-
rooms and respectable dining-rooms.
You will understand that I am here speaking of distemper tinting,
and in that material these are all the tints I can think of; if you
use bolder, deeper or stronger colours I think you will find
yourself beaten out of monochrome in order to get your colour
harmonious.
One last word as to distemper which is not monochrome, and its
makeshift, paper-hanging. I think it is always best not to force
the colour, but to be content with getting it either quite light or
quite grey in these materials, and in no case very dark, trusting
for richness to stuffs, or to painting which allows of gilding being
introduced.
I must finish these crude notes about general colour by reminding
you that you must be moderate with your colour on the walls of an
ordinary dwelling-room; according to the material you are using, you
may go along the scale from light and bright to deep and rich, but
some soberness of tone is absolutely necessary if you would not
weary people till they cry out against all decoration. But I
suppose this is a caution which only very young decorators are
likely to need. It is the right-hand defection; the left-hand
falling away is to get your colour dingy and muddy, a worse fault
than the other because less likely to be curable. All right-minded
craftsmen who work in colour will strive to make their work as
bright as possible, as full of colour as the nature of the work will
allow it to be. The meaning they may be bound to express, the
nature of its material, or the use it may be put to may limit this
fulness; but in whatever key of colour they are working, if they do
not succeed in getting the colour pure and clear, they have not
learned their craft, and if they do not see their fault when it is
present in their work, they are not likely to learn it.
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