"Human beings feel a universal attraction to light. It is the source of life-giving energy . . . and where there is light there is color."
"Color is light made visible," says Donald Kaufman," and the atmosphere of the air we breathe and the quality of the light passing through it affect how we see color." A wall painted terra cotta in Santa Fe will look very different than a wall painted terra cotta in New York. By understanding the nature of the light and atmosphere in the place where you live, paint palettes for rooms can be selected that will enhance the light and create luminous effects.
In these inspiring pages filled with breathtaking rooms, Kaufman and Dahl have visited homes in different regions of the country and explored the particularities of the light and air in each to show how colors were chosen to enhance the available light. Whether it be the veiled light of the South and Northwest, the dry air and harsh light of the desert, the misted light of northern cities, the incandescent light over water, the clear light of the mountains, or the glaring light reflected from snow, each has its own way of interacting with color indoors. The reader also learns that, just as colors change with the region, they vary with the seasons and times of day. Molecules of air, water vapor, ice crystals, nearby buildings, or the tree branches and leaves we see outside our rooms all interact with painted interiors. We come to understand that the colors on our walls need not be fixed but can reflect the subtle changes that happen outdoors.
In Kaufman and Dahl's Color: Natural Palettes for Painted Rooms, the authors transformed forever the way we see colors in nature and in the paint on our walls. In Color and Light, they take us one step further to help us understand the role of the kinds of light we live with and how we can bring the sun's warmth and luminosity inside.
Date Published 4/27/1999
Ratings
Rated By: P.J. Whitter
From: Virginia
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Comments: YUK THIS IS REALLY UNAPPEALING. THEY SHOULD HAVE CALLED THE BOOK "ATMOSPHERE FOR BEIGE ROOMS." IF YOU WANT A HOUSE WITH ALL THE CHARM OF "BUILDER BEIGE," THEN GO FOR IT. OTHERWISE, KEEP LOOKING FOR A REAL BOOK ON COLOR. (I HAVEN'T FOUND ONE I LIKE YET.)
Rated By: Mary Beth Pasteur
From: Vermont
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Comments: A dismal failure I love color. I love light. So, I thought I would love this book. Wrong, wrong, wrong. This book is a borrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrring read. It's like a bad term paper. I dare you to find one idea to take away and use in your own life. The author talks AT you, pontificates, lectures, never asks you a question or makes room for you to react. Talk about over-intellectualizing a topic and taking the fun out of design! Bleah!
Rated By: A reader
From: Unavailable
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Comments: Useful and Illuminating Beautiful book with great practical advice about how to choose colors for your home. I've gone gaga over Donald Kaufman's paints, and, although they are expensive, they are only a fraction of the price of Martha Stewart's line for Schreuder.
Rated By: A reader
From: Unavailable
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Comments: The World of Color This and the two related books (Natural Palettes and the Suzanne Butterfield book on palettes based on D. Kaufman colors)should be read attentively by anyone faced with painting a room. As beautiful as some of the illustrations are, these are NOT coffee table books to browse through. They are full of practical information for painting rooms, including rooms like mine with dark woodwork, hardwood floors, uneven walls, odd-shaped and leaded glass windows, etc. For example -- balancing cool and warm, contrasting or matching color values, using hue to stand up to strong trim, using flat paint to create a soft, smooth wall surface, what to do with dark rooms (Don't paint them white -- the resulting shadows emphasize that they are dark.), the importance of mixing paint colors without using black pigment and the importance of having the full spectrum of pigments in any paint hue, the effect that the color of light in the room will have on the wall color, and much more. The room descriptions are not prescriptions for what one must do but rather examples of the many different effects that can result using fully-pigmented paint of different value, hue, contrasts, etc. under different light conditions. The Butterfield book is a fairly simple presentation. "Natural Palettes" and "Color and Light," particularly the latter book, are sophisticated illustrated explanations of the basic "rules" of light and color through some of the myriad possible results. Read these three books with attention and be rewarded with an appreciation of color and light everywhere(in every house, apartment, store, restaurant, office, etc., on the street, the highway, in the sky, city, country -- you won't be able to help it!) Read these books and you will see, know and care about color and light forever. You'll also have no problem painting your rooms.
Rated By: John L Hurst
From: Portland, Oregon
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Comments: A unique and wonderfully inspiring book Two reasons to write this review. One is to counteract, or attempt to balance, the negativity of some of the other reader's reviews. The other is to bring to notice this exceptional book. The ideas that atmosphere, air and geographic location can influence color are not novel thoughts - Dutch master painters and the Provence of Van Gogh come to mind. But to apply such theories to the architectural and interior use of color has not been explored by enough people. Donald Kaufman was first an artist - this obviously influences his perception and methods of working with paint. The book is fascinating for the way it balances ethereal ideas with practical suggestions. The power and influence of localized light is described with excellent prose as well as lovingly selected photographs. Alongside such beauty are supremely helpful suggestions for using color and light in your own environment or in the spaces you are creating for others to enjoy. I have all three of Donald Kaufman and Taffy Dahl's books. Now I await a fourth!
Rated By: Patricia Teller "patsprout"
From: Maryland
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Comments: A Feast for the Eyes I have had this book on loan from the public library for over six weeks and can't bare to part with it. The library wants their copy back, so I'm going to have to buy my own. I was attracted to the book, not because I wanted guidance in painting the interior of my house, but because as an amateur artist and photographer, I am interested in color theory. The palettes of these interior and exterior settings as they relate to natural light is inspirational and beautiful. This is not a "how-to" book, but offers scope for the imagination. I tend to paint all my interior rooms off-white because I think that brings more light into the room. This book challenges that thinking by demonstrating through photographs of rooms in the natural light of various geographic areas how nature works with the color palette to illuminate interiors. The text supplements the photographs by explaining how this works. I like this book very much.
"Human beings feel a universal attraction to light. It is the source of life-giving energy . . . and where there is light there is color."
