030. The Colours of Barcelona
Colour palettes from the streets of the city to the walls of your home
There is too much to experience in beautiful Barcelona. The BEACH (4,5 km of Mediterranean sand), the FOOD (local, Spanish regional, & world - YUM), the ARCHITECTURE (home to countless treasures including GaudÃ’s La Sagrada FamÃlia) the HISTORY (founded over 2000 years ago, in 15 BC), the LANGUAGES (Catalan, Spanish, + 100s of other foreign languages spoken by its international residents)…
During a recent visit, I soaked in as much of it as I could, though I chose to particularly focus my eyes on the COLOURS of the city. I’m sharing with you here some of my favourite colour experiences from my days in beautiful Barcelona.
All photos were taken by me in Barcelona in October 2023. I used the Pantone Studio App to pull out colour palettes I loved. So, unlike my usual colour explorations, no AI (artificial intelligence) tools were used to create these images.
Layers of graffiti and public art caught my eye in the La Ribera area of Barcelona’s old town, Cuitat Vella. There are many different colour palettes hiding within this photo - the palette I pulled out is confident, surprising, and powerful. This is one of my favourite colour combinations yet.
Amidst the more officially sanctioned architectural beauty in Barcelona, there is also a lot of graffiti on the city’s surfaces. It often appears on the metal shutters that businesses pull down when closed, like this example from the Eixample neighbourhood. A great colour combo - upscale tropical cool.
Even on an uninspiring corner of unfortunate architectural choices, a quirky and optimistic colour palette was just waiting to be spotted! Have a look at the colour, Ethereal Green. - Standing on it’s own it’s quite undesirable, but here it’s the perfect lighter, brighter buddy for Lima Bean Green. And the red/lime green combo actually does motivate me to become a user of the city’s shared bike system!
This gorgeous mural, done by Brazilian artist Helena Sbeghen, adorns the shutter of the Brazilian restaurant, Buriti, in Barceleona’s El Poblenou neighbourhood. I find this palette to be absolutely beautiful - sophisticated yet welcoming. You should eat here the next time you’re in Barcelona.
I matched! The utility hole cover is from Aigües de Barcelona, the city’s water organization. The Deep Mint colour brings some interesting POP to the red and blue scheme.
I was not expecting to chance upon the Hells Angels Barcelona clubhouse! It’s also in the El Poblenou neighbourhood.
Barcelona’s grand avenue, Passieg de Gracia, is lined with designer shops and opulent buildings (including a few by Antoni GaudÃ, famed architect of the Sagrada FamÃlia). This Longchamp window offers a palette that isn’t super original but certainly IS is super joyful!
A window display for the current exhibition on Japanese textile artist Serizawa Keisuke at the Museu Etnològic i de Cultures del Món, Barcelona’s Ethnology Museum. This is a safe but upbeat colour palette - comfortable but not boring.
BONUS PICASSO PALETTE: Due to copyright I won’t show the painting these colours come from. There are Picasso paintings in the public domain but I’m not sure this is one of them. The painting hangs in Barcelona’s Picasso Museum, and is one of a series entitled, The Pigeons. A sophisticated colour palette that, though more muted than my norm, I find highly alluring.
There are endless perspectives from which to experience the world. Visiting Barcelona with my eyes trained on its colours was a particularly delightful one.
-Vanessa :-)
What an inspiring color journey. I like to use your ideas for Fashion. Thank you so much for all your effort with your AI and photos posts.
Just love all the colours, really enjoyed reading this, thank you!