Haute couleur not haute couture!

I have just returned from an arty break in Paris. Despite several visits to Paris over the years, there was one particular museum that had escaped me, this time I had to make a visit; it was the Musee d’Orsay. Musee d'Orsay is open late on Thursday evenings and we decided this would be the best possible time to visit. 
As we strolled along the banks of the Seine that Thursday evening watching the sunset in the distance, I couldn't help but feel myself become a French impressionist just by looking at the light in the sky. The thing that struck me most about that evening sunset was how pink it was! We sometimes  have pink sunsets in England, maybe a hint of pink highlighting a cloud. But that evening  the sky looked so pink and the light that was reflected off of the buildings looked golden. It felt truly magical to be walking by the river that evening. 

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Just next door to the Pont Neuf lies a tiny little art shop. This shop is an Aladdin's Cave filled with beautiful tubes of paint,  pretty little wooden boxes of collections of paint, and wonderful brushes in every shape and size.
 I went in.
 I almost cried with joy at the dizzying array of colour, so much choice, and so many more pale colours already premixed. I think I have always tended to buy stronger, darker pigments. Perhaps I believe this will still give me all the options I need, as surely I can simply mix white to get the paler more muted colours. Broadly speaking, that is probably right. But who am I to argue with the most popular period in art history? Most people know that impressionism was largely borne out of a reaction to photography. If some guy with a camera could come along and take an accurate photograph of everything, what was there for painters to do? There was colour (the camera was still monochrome) and there was a concept of mood and atmosphere. But in addition to this, the impressionists had a piece of technology in their favour. It was, quite simply, pre-mixed tubes of oil paint. This enabled them to go and paint en plein air. 
Outdoors.
Capture the atmos.

I resisted the temptation to buy the entire shop then and there, and make my way to the gallery.

In the Musee D’ Orsay we headed straight for the impressionists. No postcard, no photograph, no book, no second hand image can do them justice. Monet’s sunset simply glowed, Renoir’s dappled light shimmered. Looking outside through the enormous clock window we could see Sacre Coeur in the distance bathed in the exact golden pinky glow that sat before us in so many paintings. These artists hadn’t exaggerated the light and colour, they had looked at it properly and made it sing.

I scrutinised the paintings focused entirely on colour.
 
Again and again I saw muted pinks, greys made from violets and yellow dancing gently over blue.
I would return to Aladin’s cave, and this time I knew exactly what I would buy.

Paris fashion week coincided with part of our visit. I have not returned home with any shoes, handbags or haute couture. 
Pour moi - Haute couleur! 
The wonderful paints are "Charvin - Maison de Haute Couleur".

 I have paint, and inspiration and can’t wait to embark on making my next painting glow.