Color Names

This morning I read a fascinating New York Times article titled, "We Call It Brown. They Call it 'Weekend in the Country.'" As the granddaughter, daughter, sister, and aunt of paint manufacturers, I'll read just about anything about pigment and coatings.

A Valspar color specialist is quoted as saying, "We're exploring color names that are a representation of your lifestyle." Or perhaps the kind of lifestyle she and other color specialists think I (I am the you, after all) live. (Imagine: the J. Peterman of wishful paint thinking.)

What are some of the names? "Sherwin-Williams offers Synergy! From Ace Paint comes Hey There! Benjamin Moore has Old World Romance, all names that give new meaning to the term colorblind." Uh huh. Quick! Name the color family!

Can you imagine thumbing through Benjamin Moore's fan deck of 3,300 colors? How is that deck organized anyway? By mood? By fantasy? By catastrophe? ("Pantone offers Tubulence and Tornado.") And just how much does it weigh?

Why don't we all get to choose a color and then name it for ourselves? My father did that once for his company's tones: St. Luke's Red.

I think I'll try it myself. Here's a lovely little wildflower that grows by a wooden bridge at Lake Cheston. Look at it first and think to yourself, What would I call this color? I'll give you a minute (indicated by the blank space after the picture of the Virginia Meadow Beauty).










Well? What did you name it?

For me, it is now and forever this: My Niece's Cheeks After She Walked along the Bottom of a Swimming Pool.