Sign mimicking an artist's palette
Colour,  Life in Colour,  Themed galleries

Gallery: all the colours of the kaleidoscope

December 10, 2021 / 14 Comments

I found I could say things with colour and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way – things I had no words for.

Georgia O’Keeffe

Life is a train of moods like a string of beads and as we pass through them they prove to be many-coloured lenses which paint the world their own hue, and each shows only what lies in its focus.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

I went looking for good quotes about kaleidoscopes but instead found myself drawn to ones about multiple colours. Maybe that’s the same thing?

And how many colours can you pack into one photo? That’s the challenge I set myself when I saw Jude’s Life in Colour challenge for this month: ‘let’s celebrate that with the brightest / most colourful images you can find’. The photo above was taken outside an artist studio in Arpino, Italy. Now let’s see what else I unearthed in my archives!

Large round stained glass window

This window in the Sainte Chappelle in Paris really looks like a kaleidoscope!

Round window with stained glass
Lots of small round stained glass windows

As do these in the Sacre Coeur (left) and St Alban’s Abbey in England (right).

People dancing in a large city square

I think these dancers in Pyongyang, North Korea, look a bit like a kaleidoscope too.

Flight of outdoor steps painted different colours

The person who painted these steps in Praia on Santiago, one of the Cape Verde Islands, certainly knew the meaning of the word colourful!

Brightly coloured textiles hanging up

And these fabrics that I spotted in a souvenir shop on another of the islands, Sal, also fit the bill.

Small brightly coloured baskets in a pile

It’s easy to find colours in Marrakesh; these little baskets were for sale at a stall in the Place des Epices.

Tagine pots in various colours

And these tagines in one of the souks.

Russian dolls, one with Peppa Pig

I found these (mostly) traditional Russian dolls on a flea market stall in Sofia.

Large coloured letters spelling out together

Bulgaria’s Plovdiv embraced all the colours of the rainbow when it was Capital of Culture in 2019.

Mural of a black cat in a tea cup

Street art is an obvious place to look but perhaps a bit of a cheat, as it’s really the original artist who put these colours together! Nevertheless I can’t resist including just one example, and this is a favourite, from Valparaiso in Chile.

Bright flower beds in front of a modern building

The Royal Palace in Muscat is striking in its design, and made much more so by the riot of colourful flowers planted in front.

Group of young women wearing bright colours in a garden

I loved the colours of these girls’ dresses, spotted in the grounds of the Taj Mahal.

Brightly lit street at night

At night colours shine more brightly; this is Pub Street in Siem Reap in Cambodia.

Bright ligghts by a river bank

And this is Hoi An in Vietnam, the bright lights reflected in the Thu Bon River that runs through the town.

Coloured lanterns by a river

Here is Hoi An by day, with lanterns strung out on the small boats that take tourists for rides on the river, glowing with colour even on a rainy day.

Kites hanging on the wall of an old house with shutters

And kites for sale in a shop in its old town.

Carousel horse

Kites are fun and so are carousels; I came across this one at the Royal Albert Dock in Liverpool.

Women in exotic costumes playing drums by a river

These drummers were at a carnival by London’s City Hall a few years ago.

And let’s finish with a riot of colourful food from all over the world!

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