Tints: Peach

The American Heritage Dictionary defines tint as: "A pale or delicate variation; tinge or a gradation of a color made by adding white to it to lessen its saturation." Pink is the offspring of the marriage of red and white, peach is the byproduct of adding white to orange, which is a secondary color composed of red and yellow. Peach is a lush color which brings to mind juicy fruits and human flesh. Illustrated below is a painting by Korean born, New York based artist Jisso Lee. Her gorgeous works are on display at the Earlville, New York Opera House Arts Center's East Gallery through July 2, 2011.

Above: "Peach", Oil on Canvas, 2010
Artist's Statement:
"I focus in light and color. They are evocative elements.
Light fascinates me. I find many kinds of light attractive, such as the sun, candles, and even artificial light. Light makes things seem more clear or blurry, but sometimes images look distorted by refraction of light. It is fun to find some intriguing images while they are under light. By transposing images on a canvas, my work reminds you of the natural state of nature through the human body, fruits and flowers. However in some paintings, colors stand alone themselves without narrative's support. The reflections of light draw my emotion into an illusional world. 
My painting begins with selecting colors.
Colors have different meanings in various cultures and the meaning of colors can change as time goes by. Many of the effects of color on our moods may be the result of social and psychological associations with a particular color. These associations vary from person to person and from culture to culture, making it difficult to define the meaning of color within themselves. I hope the colors in my painting can bring up the moment of their own beautiful memories that people have."

Praise for Jisoo Lee:
"The pleasures to be found in Lee's current paintings-and they are many-derive in part from the imagery and in part from the elusiveness and sensitivity of that imagery, from the tension between the abstract and the figurative, heat and coolness, neutral form and pornographic brushwork, elegantly complex colors and modulated tonalities. As they waver between illusion and reality, they radiate a hothouse aura, an enigmatic charm."
-New York based independent curator, essayist and critic: Lilly Wei

Peach’s Claim to Fame

            Peach is pure perfection, complex and delicious, a combination of combinations. This variability gives tones and shades of melon, shrimp, salmon and apricot, a summer menu for the table or the garden. Mixing red with white to give pink and then adding yellow makes faded peach tints. Mixing red with yellow to give orange and then adding white yields more piquant shades. Such a complexity of hues means peach is diverse enough to combine with many colors to create interesting associations. Like the other pastels, peach is easily seen from a distance, yet its subtle charms can best be taken in at nose length. Its opalescent mother-of-pearl quality can be much more effective in a planting of flowers than is a flatter, more saturated primary or secondary color. It seems to add a three-dimensional, reflective element that sets a border shimmering in the garden.

            Peach is a compelling color, lending a unique lightness that neither pink nor yellow will provide; it can also be capricious and challenging. One would assume that peach could be slipped in to perform like any other pastel to harmonize with gray and silver or dark, shadowy colors, or to be enjoyed simply for its own pleasant and subtle appeal. Yet in some situations, the relationship and balance of the white with the red or yellow of peach will determine whether such a substitution works or not. When combining peach with gray, for instance, the peach must not be muted with too much white, otherwise so much light will be reflected from the composition that the definition of the color will be lost and the result might be insipid.

            Decorators know a super smooth sheetrock wall painted in flat, commercially mixed peach has as much appeal as a synthetically dyed polyester frock. The evenness and flatness leave both lifeless. By contrast, rough plaster walls washed or stippled with a naturally pigmented paint will have the same depth and luster as a piece of raw silk in which the uneven weave and slub take the dye in an irregular and interesting way. Brick, stone, wood and the natural mixture of foliage provide the earthiness this color needs.

"Peach once vied with black as the most elusive and sought after color for the garden; nowadays every seed catalog proudly announces new single-color selections or introductions in the peach range. If you want a pastel color, peach will usually do very nicely as a pleasant but less predictable alternative to pink or mauve, to be used in much the same way but bringing an element of subtlety and change to a planting.

Because of its complex composition, peach, in its vast range of tints and hues, can be used to enhance many planting areas. Flowers are sometimes bicolored pink and yellow, giving an impression of peach, which can be a great bonus.

When it comes to choosing a rose of peach tones, the gardener must be content with relatively modern ones, as the breeding of yellow into roses, which led to peach, did not become possible until 1830 when a yellow Noisette rose was created by crossing 'Blush Noisette' with 'Park's Yellow Tea-scented China.' Many peach colored roses followed and are as luxurious as the finest silken frou-frou ever seen in madame de Pompadour's boudoir. Let us praise these colors as Vira Sackville-West did when she saw them int he carpets of the Orient: 'Rich, rich they were, rich as a fig broken open, soft as a ripened peach, freckled as an apricot, coral as a pomegranate.'

Peach, the pastel form of orange, also combines well with blue, superbly set off by the cool tones of indigo, purple and plum, like the drama of late afternoon winter skies."
(This passage is from the lush book COLOR IN THE GARDEN by Nori and Sandra Pope.

Ripened to Perfection, peaches are coming into the markets. Fredericksburg, Texas, and the surrounding area have the golden globes available now. The peaches will generally be smaller this year due to the drought, but they will taste better because of a higher sugar content.

The following ripening dates can vary by 10 days or so, but one can look forward to tasting these varieties:
June Gold - May 25-June 5
Garnet Beauty - May 30-June 10
Sentinel/Gala - June 5-15
Harvester - June 10-25
Loring - June 19- July 10
Redglobe (my fav) June 25-July 10
Dixieland - July 10-25
Redskin - July 15-25
Jefferson - July 20-30
O'Henry - July 20-Aug. 5
Ouichita Gold - July 25-Aug. 10
Parade - Aug. 5-20