I’ve loved art for as long as I can remember.
A lot of that comes from childhood visits to Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, wandering around rooms filled with paintings and objects that seemed completely different to anything else I knew. That fascination has never really gone away.
I remain a wannabe sketch artist and watercolourist. I love buying sketchbooks, pencils, paints and brushes with enormously good intentions. Actually becoming the next great master is taking a little longer.
So when it comes to gifts for art lovers, The Colour Palette Company is on fairly familiar ground.
The Art Masters Colour Palette takes six artists and turns their work into six very simple colour references.
There’s Earring Pearl for Johannes Vermeer and his iconic Girl with a Pearl Earring. Sunflower Yellow celebrates Vincent Van Gogh, who I rather boldly describe as the greatest of them all.
Gustav Gold comes from the extraordinary gold leaf paintings of Gustav Klimt, while Temeraire Sun represents J.M.W. Turner and The Fighting Temeraire.
Then we move into sculpture with Barbara’s Bronze, celebrating Barbara Hepworth, before finishing with Water Lily Leaf for Claude Monet and those instantly recognisable water lily paintings.
Quite an art collection to fit onto one mug.
And the Art Masters Colour Palette Mug looks particularly good filled with watercolour brushes. I know, because we’ve tried it.
If your favourite art comes with a little more comic-book yellow and tomato red, there’s also the Pop Art Colour Palette.
It starts with Brillo Blue, inspired by Andy Warhol’s Brillo boxes, followed by Splash Sky, taken from the Californian blue of David Hockney’s A Bigger Splash.
There’s Marilyn Blonde for Pop Art’s most famous muse, Whaam! Yellow for Roy Lichtenstein’s comic-book masterpiece and Pepper Pink, our nod to Peter Blake and Ringo Starr’s unforgettable pink suit on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
And how else could a Pop Art palette finish but with Soup Can Tomato, inspired by Warhol’s culture-defining soup cans?
For me, one of the best gifts for artists and art lovers is still a sketchbook.
Our Colour Palette sketchbooks are made for those moments when you want to capture something before it’s gone. A building, a face, a landscape, the light, a colour or just an idea.
Mine tend to contain enthusiastic attempts at drawing and watercolour rather than anything that will trouble the Royal Academy.
But that’s the point. You don’t have to be brilliant. Just look, draw and enjoy doing it.
Our Colour Palette lunchboxes have another use too.
Forget the sandwiches for a minute. They’re a great size for pencils, pens, brushes, erasers and those assorted art materials that otherwise end up rolling around at the bottom of your bag.
Add a sketchbook and you’ve got a colourful little portable art kit.
Then there’s the Colour Palette apron, which makes a practical gift for painters, potters, printmakers, artists and makers.
Because if you’re going to paint, you might as well make a mess.
I still love visiting galleries and museums now, probably as much as I did on those early trips to Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.
And here’s something that still makes me smile: you can now walk into Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and buy Birmingham Colour Palette gifts.
How cool is that?
From someone who grew up visiting the museum and being inspired by art, I’ll never get tired of seeing our own colourful little contribution sitting in its shop.
So, if you’re searching for unique gifts for art lovers, gifts for painters, art student gifts, art teacher gifts or presents for creative people, start with something colourful.
Preferably with a sketchbook nearby.
