Countryside – DAVID OAKES

Is White a Colour ?…..I ask that question for when I was a young boy (in the last century!) we had compulsory Art Lessons. They were awful as the whole class had to do the exact same exercise, just like the Teacher did. No freedom of individual expression….just do as we were instructed. No way to encourage even the budding artists let alone those reluctant to use a pencil and brush. Yet despite that, one statement has always stuck with me…..White is not a colour….well that is what they told us! The summer Phlox (above) is one of the whitest petals I know and for me is as colourful as the many other summer colours of the garden.

White in nature is rarely pure, more often than not it has a hint, a tinge of colour from its surrounding parts, sometimes yellow, may be green or pink. Here are just a few more floral colours for a warm July summers day, some brash other more subdued….they all please me and I trust will please you….