LOCAL COLOR

Seeing Place Through Watercolor

By Mimi Robinson

Whenever we first encounter a new place, whether landscape or cityscape, one of the most immediate and powerful sensations comes from its colors, or the palette of colors, which profoundly influence our reaction to and sense of a space. In Local Color, designer and educator Mimi Robinson teaches us not only how to see the colors around us but also how to capture and record them in watercolor. Regardless of your level of expertise, Robinson will quickly have you creating personal memories of time, travel, and place through a series of self-guided exercises and illustrated examples.

• This instructional book includes everything you need to sharpen your powers of observation, develop your color senses, and create beautiful palettes of local color

• In an age of constant visual bombardment, this Zen-like process of color observation allows you to slow down and become fully absorbed in the present moment

Available for purchase through the Princeton Architectural Press.

Reviews

• I love Mimi Robinson's new book, LOCAL COLOR. It encourages me to keep a journal, express myself artfully and look much more closely and appreciatively at the beautiful world around me! Not to mention, LOCAL COLOR has me planning and dreaming about where to set up my watercolors next!

• Proustian in its languor, Zen-like in its quiet concentration, professorial in its knowledge, and DIY in its clarity, it is the best creative vitamin I’ve ingested in years. Seeing Robinson capture the essence of her favorite places in simple grids of watercolor tones is deeply pleasurable. But the book’s true power lies in its challenge to follow in her footsteps and code and decode your own experience — a dozen colors at time. Whether capturing a micro-adventure to a shadowed corner of your own yard, or a trip of a lifetime to Guatemala or Kyrgyzstan, Robinson’s gentle focus on looking with care at the world around you opens up a poetic, personal inner world.

• I just received “Local Color, Observing Place through Watercolors”, and was completely engrossed. It's a thoughtful, beautiful and inspiring book. I've often noticed colors and patterns as I hike and travel and I'm excited to make palettes and start art journaling based on your exercises. Thank you for putting your design, and yourself, out into the world and being such as inspiration for me.