Getting real about Nature’s colour palette

Some inspiration and meaning on the ‘TRUE’ natural colour palette.

It seems that every interior magazine, homemaker show or person you speak with is extolling the virtues of a natural colour palette. Various shades of brown, beige, latte, wheat, rust, charcoal, cream, white or perhaps with a little pale blue or a green seems to be the standard. But what is a natural colour palette really? So much more than this, as you will see!

If you look back through history, all colours originated from nature. Black from burning a stick into charcoal. Red and yellow ochre from stones. Green from copper or the mineral, Malachite. Yellows made from arsenic. Purple from the macerated enzymes of millions of shellfish. Orange from Madder root. Blue from Lapis Lazuli or Azurite. Red from the Cochineal bug that lives on the Prickly pear cactus and Gold, from well…..gold! The list goes on and it got me thinking….

when I recently took a short break to the beautiful West Coast of Tasmania with my husband Paul. The West Coast is known for its remote wilderness, spectacular scenery and lots and lots of rain. You can immerse yourself in nature and a total and complete natural palette here, get away from the rat race and really relax.

But low and behold … it is not all various shades of brown, beige, latte, wheat, rust, charcoal, cream, white or perhaps a little pale blue or a green. In fact, there are so many colours I can’t list them all including hot pinks, bright yellows, oranges, reds and an abundant range of greens in hundreds of shades and tones.

Even though this is the wilderness there is also mining for Silver, Copper and Iron and in the remote town of Queenstown the colours of the landscape and rock are spectacular. It was pouring with rain and freezing when we arrived but this made the colours stand out even more and show their true richness.

At a little coastal shack town called Trial Harbour it was clear blue skies. The purple flowers of the Salt bush, red berries, orange Lichen on the rocks, the sea and a locals welcoming natural sculpture all stood out as explosions of natural colour.

And then Strahan, the town where you can embark on the famous Gordon River Cruise. We were so very lucky to have such spectacular weather. The blue of the water and sky just glistened.