I’d been aware of the COLOURlovers site for a while and always thought it was cool.  The site is a bit like social media meets the paint chip display at your local hardware store.  I’m always amazed at the variety of colors and associations on display at these when I’m shopping for paint.  Whether its something obvious like “Slate Blue” or mysterious like “Dusty Cairo”, I’ve always thought that the guy/gal that names the colors has a great job!

That’s why I was pretty intrigued by the COLOURlovers post about Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night. This post is a great example of how inspirational some of the works of art in our collections can be for designers and artists looking for their muse.  Somehow, to me, pulling these colors out of their context makes me think about them differently?  I decided to give it a try myself!  Setting up and account and creating palettes turned out to be a really easy and enjoyable experience.  Check out my colour lovin’ palettes!

Not to knock on Van Gogh, but I think there are a lot of great works of art to get your color inspiration from here at the IMA! I picked out several of our favorite works from among the web folks here and created palettes for them.  You can even feature images and descriptions of the things that inspired your color crafty-ness.  I used these to link back into our collection and provided images of the works of art.  I’ll admit, it was a lot more fun than I thought it would be and it did cause me to pay more attention to the artist’s choices. 

Is anyone else up to the challenge?

I’d love to see some other posts from people using their favorite works of art as inspiration for new color palettes.  Feel free to use works from IMA’s Collection if you like, or just show us something that inspires you!

Best part? I pulled out some colors that had not been cataloged by the system yet.  So I got to name them!  Say hello to Egungun Red and Egungun Gold, Red Shirt and Homer Sky!  Ok, the last one wasn’t all that original, can you do better? Post your’s in the comments and show us what colors really stand out for you!

	Artist Homer, Winslow Title: The Boat Builders Creation date 1873 Materials oil on panel Dimensions 6 x 10 1/4 in. 13 3/4 x 17 3/4 in. (framed)
Palette Boat Builders

	Culture or people Yoruba people Title Egungun masquerade costume Creation date 1901-1990 Materials cotton, beads Dimensions L: 64 in.
Palette Egungun

	Artist Scott, William Edouard Title Rainy Night, Etaples Creation date 1912 Materials oil on canvas Dimensions 25 1/2 x 31 in. 33 x 39 1/4 in. (framed)
Palette Etaples

	Artist Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri de TitleMoulin Rouge – La Goulue Creation date 1891 Materials color lithograph Dimensions 67 x 46 3/4 in.
Palette La Goulue

	Creation date 701-800 Dynasty Tang dynasty Title tomb guardian Materials earthenware with lead glaze, ink, gold Dimensions 42 1/8 x 19 x 9 (approx.) in.
Palette Tomb Guardian