pantone spring 2015: en plein air {woodbine}

Organics Still Life by Charles Schiller via Pinterest

Vintage books by naturesdoorways via Plum Leaves on Flickr

Green Olive Oil Bottles Paris, France by Rebecca Plotnick via Etsy

RHS Plant Selector Lonicera japonica 'Halliana' from RHS

When I was in primary school, my parents took my sisters and I on holiday to Stratford-Upon-Avon. We did this at least twice and they are some of my fondest holidays, because these were the years my parents introduced us to Shakespeare.

Over the years we went, they took us to see Romeo and Juliet (with David Tennant as Romeo no less), As You Like It with it's Kaffe Fassett sets and Twelfth Night, however it was the first that I remember most fondly (possibly because we saw it more than once!).

A Midsummer Night's Dream was my introduction to Shakespeare in the theatre, and that was it, I was done for and over the years I've kept going back to it in art projects and for inspiration, it was beautiful. And here is my reason for this particular walk down memory lane, when I'm supposed to be talking about Pantone's Spring Colour: Woodbine. Well, woodbine is commonly known as honeysuckle and is one of many flowers mentioned in a soliloquy I have known by heart for many year...

I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:
There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,
Lull’d in these flowers with dances and delight;
And there the snake throws her enamell’d skin,
Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in:
And with the juice of this I’ll streak her eyes,
And make her full of hateful fantasies.
Take thou some of it, and seek through this grove:
A sweet Athenian lady is in love
With a disdainful youth: anoint his eyes;
But do it when the next thing he espies
May be the lady: thou shalt know the man
By the Athenian garments he hath on.
Effect it with some care, that he may prove
More fond on her than she upon her love:
And look thou meet me ere the first cock crow

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 2, Scene 1, Spoken by Oberon.

The Adrian Nobel production's set, designed by Anthony Ward, with it's minimalist box, disappearing doors, beautiful pink umbrella and floating light bulbs. It's so simple, and so far from this florid floral depiction Shakespeare gives of the environment, but all these years later, it still makes me excited. I'm probably going to have to watch the film version of the production now.

My parents occasionally lament on the fact that they didn't take us on exotic holidays out of the country. I to this day, still have no passport to my name, which when I tell people shocks them. But I wouldn't trade those holidays going to the theatre, to the butterfly farm, to Anne Hathaway's house or Teddy Bear Museum, not for anything.

Thus, I leave you with Pantone's luscious woodbine. Exiting stage right, persuade by fairies...


Link | Pantone Fashion Colour Report Spring 2015: En Plein Air
Link | Organics Still Life by Charles Schiller (Pinterest)
Link | Vintage books by naturesdoorways via Plum Leaves on Flickr (Pinterest)
Link | Green Olive Oil Bottles Paris, France by Rebecca Plotnick via Etsy (Pinterest)
Link | RHS Plant Selector Lonicera japonica 'Halliana' from RHS Gardening (Pinterest)
Link | Adrian Nobel's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' RSC Set by Anthony Ward via Finding Shakespeare

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Listening: Dog Days Are Over - Florence + The Machine