Perhaps you have visited my blog yesterday, after having read my first post…. (www.ursusart.studio) If you did, you might have noticed, that the colour blue is ubiquitous. We all know that many artists go through a ‘blue period’, like Picasso, and for Yves Klein it seemed to be the only existing colour. In Der Blaue Reiter, blues were over-represented too.
We can easily Google away to find out what it was with this colour, that captivated so many artists. But to me the hardest question is: Why do I myself seem to fall back on the colour blue over and over again? Am I depressed? Yes, sometimes, but I grab my Phthalo too when I’m buzzing. So there goes that theory….

I have been thinking about this question for a while, and this is what I have come up with so far:
There is a deepness in the darker shades of blue, that I can almost feel physically. That I do know. It’s like a vibration I can not hear, but only feel. Now, I have no idea whether I am the only person who feels artworks in her body, but to me they’re like a language that I cannot speak, but that I want to listen to anyway. Just as I sense blots, markings and scratches in drawings, I too can sense colours. I think it is one of the reasons I want to do art more than anything else. It is one of these annoying things that is hard to explain, especially to non-artists.
This deepness I mentioned, technically speaking, is perfect for pushing back parts of the painting, but adding water allows you to make other parts come forward. Here we create depth and the illusion of a 3-dimensional world on paper. Not every colour has this ability: Yellows and even reds don’t seem to, only perhaps when you mix them with deeper colours…. with for instance… blue! Black, of course, does have this power of allowing you to mix a wide range of shades and there is no ‘colour’ as deep as black. But to me, putting black next to any other colour, means the vibrancy of that neighbouring colour is killed instantly. I’d rather use black only, or mix it with another colour.
When it comes to inks: the darker blues bleed so well! I don’t know whether this is my imagination, but to me it seems like they spread wider and more fluently than their siblings.
But the most important reason: It must be the feeling of magic, that makes me return to my Phthalo. It understands my longing for late evening nights, in which the sunset made sure that the first so brightly coloured world has been covered in a blanket of only blues and greys. Everything has softened and quietened down and from that moment on, anything romantic can happen. No more daily reality and responsibilities, but a time to hide away in dreamy fantasies in which you have control over what you want to happen.
If you can think of an additional reason on what you think blues make so captivating, then please tell me so in the comments! Thanks so much!
Eva Mout, Ursus Art
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This was the first written explanation by Eva that I have had the privilege to read. Well Worth the Time Invested!!
“Bravo, my dear young friend! Bravo!”
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Thank you, Barbara, I thought you might want to read this one, because of the print you ordered yesterday! Now you know a bit of the story behind it! 💖
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The pragmatist in me suggests that blue is the overriding colour of creation….blue skies, blue seas. Maybe it’s a primordial instinct that when we see blue (in a its hues) we feel ‘connected’ in some way?
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That sure is something to think about! ❤️
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