A Painted Cottage

“Home is the heart of life…Home is where we feel at ease, where we belong, where we can create surroundings that reflect our tastes and pleasures…Making a home is a form of creativity open to everyone.~Terence Conran

Hi! How was your week?

One of the highlights of my week was having the opportunity to paint en plein air for the first time.

 

The surroundings for this plein air was situated on a beautiful lush green golf course here on the Oregon Coast.

The artists were invited to paint (as a fundraiser) and contribute to the gallery exhibit at a local hospital.

I enjoyed the experience & I’ll share more with you later as time goes by and I become more acquainted with this art form.

 however what I’ve really been thinking about this week is color and it’s effects on our surroundings. emotions I began looking at the colors I’m drawn to both in and outside my home environment.

Without going into all of the research on how certain *colors effect us

warm colors such as red, yellow & orange spark a variety of emotions ranging from comfort and warmth to hostility and anger

& that cool colors such as green, blue and purple often spark feelings of calmness as well as sadness.

More than likely the fact that a future project is in the making has  influenced this sudden obsession with color.

 It’s coming up on two years living on the Oregon coast hard to believe and realized a special celebratory project was needed and wanted this 1946 cottage will be turning almost 70 years young  Perhaps a paint lift is in order. Deciding on the right color is important, since  I’ll be living with it for a while. it’s important to be happy

I’ve enjoyed the cheery yellow cottage color

However…I’m longing for a fresh new look.

 Something that not only speaks happy, but evokes love, romance, youth and of course a sense of a fun adventurous spirit. I’m looking forward to sharing it all with you when I’ve decided to go forward. wish me luck!

*A simplified synopsis of colors

Black: A powerful mysterious color often associated with seriousness

Blue: A relaxing color. Calming.

Brown: An organic earthly color. A cozy color.

Green: Easy on the eyes. Associated with optimism. Clean. Fresh.

Orange: Friendly, relaxing ambitious.

Pink: Youthful. Feminine. Soft. Happy.

Purple: Associated with royalty. Evokes many emotions.

Red: Associated with excitement & action.

White: Pure. Clean.

Yellow: Highly emotional color. After long periods of time yellow invokes a wide variety of emotions. In small doses, is a friendly, happy color.

Wishing you a wonderful and safe Memorial Day with gratitude for all our Military men and women.

 Here’s a small sampling of a few colors I’ve been collecting. btw…what’s your favorite color?

Oh and one more bit of info before I say good~bye.

I haven’t been cooking much this week. (being that I’ve been running around looking at homes and colors of paint)  I try to eat healthy and here is a quick fix.

I had a bag of Trader Joe’s colorful pasta on hand, so I decided to prepare a salad with pasta. Now how easy is that! 

Marcia’s on the go pasta recipe

Ingredients:

1-2 cups colorful pasta

a few leafs of lettuce

1 small slice of tomato

Directions:

Boil it, wash it, slice & cut it…and enjoy!

Marcia
This entry was posted in Our Cottage. Bookmark the permalink.

6 Responses to A Painted Cottage

  1. Joseph says:

    I really appreciated your breakdown of the colors with the actual colors!
    Very well done and very enjoyable post!
    Have a fun Memorial Day weekend!

    • Marcia Ren says:

      Hi Joe! Thank you for your comments. Yes the colors are interesting. Especially those that have a range of emotion like yellows.

  2. Becky Yohonn says:

    Great music. Intriguing thoughts. Always fun to read your posts!

    • Marcia Ren says:

      Hi Becky!
      Nice to see you. yes colors have such interesting effects on us. Some are very obvious while others are more subtle. Enjoy your weekend!

  3. Jane says:

    Hello Marcia,
    Enjoyed this post on colors and how we interact with them. It is really something I never think about and take for granted but it is so true that colors do bring on different emotions. Two years ago, I too, decided to change the colors in my home as I was wanting a calmer and less busy environment. I am now in my white and ocean blues period and in fact, I am without furniture in one room, my living room as I am still deciding what I want in there….

    I love the fact that you are now into plein air painting. Have you hung any of your artwork in your darling cottage? You have a lot of different areas in your coastal town to pick from..I love it when you show us pictures of the seacoast on sunny and stormy days.
    The cookies you displayed were darling. I loved the floral design and the colors, they looked like they were plucked right out of your garden.. . I could see you out there with a good book and a glass of lemonade… they were just perfect on your primer on color!

    I have been busy the last week organizing my garage and craft/decoration/china storage closet. The garage needs new flooring so everything had to be removed. I decided to clean out my storage closet under the stairs and take all my boxes of china that were in the garage and store it in my newly organized and cleaned out storage closet… I have such an air of accomplishment and everything is now labeled, organized and neat at last!!!! Knowing you from this blog I am sure you would appreciate this endeavor…

    Well, I am going to run and water my little garden… thank you again for another wonderful post of your life along the Oregon Coast… I so enjoy them. I look forward to seeing your tea cart that you picked up…. perhaps you will have another fun blog on that….

    Happy days to you!
    XO
    Jane

    • Marcia Ren says:

      Hi Jane!
      So nice to see you on this beautiful day. The coast will be glistening in glorious weather the next 4-5 months. Yippee! I know there in Laguna Beach it is sunnier more often. I’m glad you enjoy seeing the pictures of the Oregon’s seacoast on both sides of weather. I’ve gained a deep respect for mother nature since moving. (grin) I smiled when you mentioned about changing colors in your home. We go through different chapters in our life & different things come forth. I know that part of my transition from sunny California to the coast has been reflected in my desire for bright interior colors. I love being around happy colors. So I bring them indoors now as much as I can. Those cookies unfortunately are all gone. (eaten) I purchased them because they were really cute & was hoping they wouldn’t taste that good. Ha! I’m soooooo impressed with your cleaning/organizing the garage, & craft/decoration/china storage closet. I do know how good that must feel. Since my move & downsizing everything is easier. However every once in a while I feel like I’m acquiring things again. (sigh) so I quickly clear/clean/give away as fast as possible. It’s delightful to chat with you. I hope you enjoy the weekend. Take care my friend. xo

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *