Last week, on the first brisk day of the season, ocean
alchemy transmuted Ipswich Bay into ultramarine.
The color startles me even though it is predictable, like geese flying south.
Nature reserves it for deep waters, rarely land or air. Like all colors it
corresponds to certain mood phases.
Ultramarine conveys a spare dignity. George Washington adopted
it for his Continental Army coat. The United States Postal Service used it on
early stamps. Each syllable pair in the word connotes the unconquerable.
Ultramarine. Say it slowly to yourself.
As generously and diversely as The Pigmentist uses blue in
water and sky, he restricts it modestly elsewhere. That tension makes blue many
people's favorite color.
 |
Cichorium intybus, chicory
|
Chicory flowers borrow blues from the horizon to the sky's
zenith. Toward their pale center lies periwinkle,
deepening through celestial blue to azure
at the tips of the petals. These tints have been available to artists since the
rendering of the mineral lapis lazuli in ancient Persia.
Partly because of its terrestrial rarity blue stands out noticeably
in the landscape. I use it for marking flags in garden design. Blue lights in
the rear view mirror invariably arrest a driver's attention.
 |
Myrica pennsylvanica, bayberry
|
Blue suffuses the glaucous bayberries developing now at Halibut Point.
At midday the berries go white; at dusk gray. But that is the province of light
rather than pigment.
 |
Picea pungens, Colorado blue spruce
|
A spruce tree illustrates the complex relationship between
blues and greens. Its shades shimmer, mingle, and disappear, calling to mind a parallel
in the ancient quest to manufacture a blue mineral from copper and cobaltous
oxides.
The resulting hue called
caeruleus
in Latin meant,
imprecisely, "dark blue, blue or blue-green." Prior to modern
chemistry
cerulean blue had the
weakness of reverting to green in noble works of man.
 |
Swida amomum, silky dogwood
|
September matures certain fruits into a pleasing range of
blues. Exactly how you name them is a personal matter. Your conclusions may
evolve with the ripening. For me these silky dogwood berries evoke the achievements
of Egyptian blue and Chinese porcelain blue.
 |
Viburnum dentatum, smooth arrowwood
|
Closer to black, viburnum berries offer Prussian blue to aesthetes as well as to birds.
 |
Symphyotrichum novi-belgii, New York aster
|
As red begins to influence the blue spectrum, it produces blue-violet. The aster family exhibits a
broad range of bluish colors including lavender
and indigo. We name these tones most
readily by referring to other flowers.
Blues occupy the cool portion of the spectrum, a calm
between the industrious yellows of August and the pyretic reds of October.
September lays summer down and extends a hand to fall. It clarifies the
atmosphere and waters with gem-quality blues like aquamarine, turquoise, and sapphire.
We're coasting a bit on summer bounty, not quite compelled
to the compromises of autumn. Loveliness abounds with a wistful air. September
blues stir the realm tenderly.
