Cerulean Blue

cerulean blue and solar panel

I love blue, it’s been my favourite colour since I finally outgrew the girlish pink/red obsession. If you peaked into my wardrobe, nearly every hanger would display some shade of blue. Before I realised that my lack of sea-legs would end my ambition to own a yacht (just a small one, I wasn’t greedy) I had planned to call her “Indigo Dream”, another nod towards the blue palette. But if I were pushed to name my favourite shade, it would have to be cerulean blue.

I paint watercolours for my own enjoyment (when I get time, which is rare) and trust me, the cerulean section of my paintbox is used up faster than nearly any other colour. There’s something about the bright, clear, freedom of a blue sky overhead that makes the spirits soar and today, thank goodness, is the fourth day in a row that I’ve had it sparkling above me. Which is particularly useful as we finally got out our solar panels fitted last Friday and now have very hot water in our taps for free 24 hours a day. Admittedly it will be eight-ten years in paying for itself despite the government grant, and it will only yield about 80% of our hot water on overcast days in winter, but I just love it and it should give us hot water for free for up to 30 years. If you’re in Ireland, I would be happy to recommend The Energy Centre for the work. They started at 8am, took no tea breaks (shock!), cleaned up perfectly after themselves and were gone by 4.15 in the afternoon. One of them even re-stacked my linens in the airing cupboard after the work was done.

As for cerulean, well, it’s a beautiful word, perhaps not as wonderful as the colour it describes but it does its best, and why should any writer use “blue” in a description when they could use “cerulean” or even “sky-blue”? Beautiful words should be used and saved from vocabulary oblivion in my opinion. There’s no need to scatter them about like confetti, but let’s not allow them to fade into oblivion either, ok?

I’m going to be taking a closer look at some other painter terms over the next few posts as I think they lend great depth to writing and descriptions without being too obtuse for the average reader to understand. But, remember, and this is for my mother who always claimed it was red, cerise is a bright shade of pink, ok? Not red!!! If you’re not sure on any colour, go to your local art-shop and ask or check out the fanciful shade-names on colour cards for interior paints.

Happy writing, Grace

Advertisement