For the Love of Color

For the Love of Color

By Swooz Hudson

When I retired from teaching public school Art, I didn’t really retire. I took my education and experience to the paint studio at Black Dog Salvage where, among other things, I was instrumental in the development of the Black Dog Salvage Furniture Paint line – everything from the formula, the colors and mixability, to our paint recipes. The result is a line that consists of 16 hues, including the three primary colors and a true black and true white so that the user can easily create any color imaginable, as well as tints and shades of all the colors.

So far, we have created 100+ tried and true Paint Recipes to make the process even simpler. One of my favorite things about my job is that I still get to head over to the paint studio and create new colors for each season. I enjoy the whole process of imagining, mixing, and experimenting to create new colors that I know people will love. From there, I make my picks for the next season’s story, then we roll out a theme for each month.

People often ask me how I do it, and to that I just say it’s second nature – part of my DNA. I am passionate about color and have always been able to find inspiration in simple things and then mentally catalog it, like little snapshots.

Ever since I was a little girl, I would carry colors in my mind. I would see a color in an upholstered piece of furniture or a bouquet of flowers, and memories of a special time, place or person would come flooding back to me.

I never thought anything about it, or even talked about it. As an interior design student, matching colors, creating a color theme for a room, were all easy tasks that came naturally to me.

When I was in college, taking an Art History class, I learned about the artist Kandinsky. His work was very colorful and abstract. I wanted to learn more about his approach to his art. I spent an afternoon in the library immersed in everything Kandinsky that I could fine.

I was blown away when I discovered we shared a similar, though different gift.

Kandinsky was a composer first and moved into painting later. He gave his paintings titles reminiscent of musical pieces. Why? Because when Kandinsky heard music, he saw colors! He painted his musical compositions.

When I start a new palette of color recipes there is always something, be it a painting, a quilt square, a Christmas card, something that sparks a memory, becomes my muse, and creates a need for me to start mixing it up.

I hope you look forward to these special palettes each month and find your inspiration to create something amazing as well. Be sure to follow us on our social media pages and sign up for our newsletter so that you can catch them all as they come out. I would also love to see YOUR work, so send me your Before & After project shots at shudson@blackdogsalvage.com. Who knows, we may feature it in one of our posts! Happy Mixing!