The colours of my life – Part 2/7 – BLUE

This 7-part series on my blog covers the colours of my life, or more precisely of my childhood memories, a great source of inspiration for my art. You’ll find more posts from that series on this page.

My first memories of BLUE

My first memory of blue are the baby blue clothes of my first doll Ati – I’ve been relegated to the status of “grandmother” for Ati now that my daughter inherited it and became her adoptive mum (!)

My second blue memory is the baby blue color of the family VW beetle with which my parents used to take us on holiday, the furthest being all the way to Corsica with 5 of us in it. How they managed to fit us all in it (2 adults and 3 kids), the luggage and the picnic table and chairs is a mystery to me! That car remains my favourite car ever to this date.

And then… there are:

the blues from nature

the infinitely changing blue of “my” Atlantic Ocean and the wonderful skies that go with it and which I watched over and over from the balcony window, mostly at dusk and which slowly turned to hues of orange and red and purple depending on the weather and cloud combinations.

the purple blue of blueberries and blackberries that we used to pick in the wild while on holiday in the French Massif Central or on the trails and in the woods near my Pépé’s house in South-West France.

the lavender blue of the lavenders (!) in my grandfather’s garden and now the same blue in my mum’s garden around which bees, bumblebees and butterflies love to buzz and fly.

the midnight blue, almost black, of the winter nights when we had to get up so early in the night to drive across to the Alps for a week of skiing almost every year. I used to stay awake in the car and peak through the window to catch a glimpse of the tiny stars up there. And yes, some of these trips were in the VW Beetle!

the infinite hues of turquoise blue of the lagoons of French Polynesia over which I flew back in 2007 for an amazing adventure with my dear friend Denis

the fantastic shades of blue of all the flowers in my mum’s garden, not only lavender but also myosotis, wisteria, cornflowers, etc…

the ever changing blue of the Perito Moreno glacier as I share in this post

Blue from school

the dark blue ink of my first fountain pen with which I learnt to write fancy A, B, Cs at school.

Blue-stained blotting paper (and fingers!) from said fountain pen from the learning process.

The country flags from my early years!

the French blue of my home country’s bleu-blanc-rouge flag… liberté, égalité, fraternité!

the Scottish blue of the St Andrews’ cross, Scotland’s white and blue flag. Scotland was the first foreign country that I ever visited as a teenager, that I fell in love with from its sheer beauty and amazingly friendly people.

Many blue iconic items of clothing…

the vivid blue of the satin of my amazing marquess costume dress, hand-sewn by my mum, with trimmings in baby blue tulle in which I felt like a princess at 4 years old – and which my daughter can now wear, 40 years later!

the navy blue woollen jumper (the one with the buttons with a marine anchor on them) which I found too scratchy but which my dad loved to wear when we were sailing and it was cold and windy.

the fantastic shining royal blue of one of my ballet outfits for a show inspired by folk songs with its yellow, red and green ribbons that my mum sewed with her sewing machine which I was very proud of – for one of my first dance shows on a big stage in my home town of La Rochelle

my stone-washed blue Levis’ jeans dungarees (my first branded ones!) that my grandfather Pépé bought when I was about 8 years old and which I was so sad to stop wearing when it got too small

the turquoise blue of another favourite pair of jeans that I had as a sweet 16, which I used to wear with a vivid orange jumper that my mum had knitted for my brother Alain and which was too large for me, but so cool as a teenager – yes, I loved contrasts back then too!

the luminous blue of my favourite pareo with its huge flowers that I brought back from Moorea from that trip

the deep phtalo blue of one of my favorite dresses as a little girl, a velours dress which made me feel like a princess

The blue shades from my favourite teenage films

Many shades of blue in my favourite films as a teenager “The Big Blue” by Luc Besson and “Three Colours: Blue” by Krzysztof Kie?lowski with beautifully haunting music scores – both of them!

Finally, my most recent favourite blue in life…

…My daughter’s eyes!

And here are a few paintings featuring a lot of blue