What is the color of more lost time?

It's crusade time again!  Last month we mixed and named our own colors.  This month Michelle challenged us to name the color first.  I knew right away that the name of my color would be "more lost time".

More Lost Time is the name of my husband's terrific podcast and blog.  He recently asked me to create an orignal piece of artwork to use as a banner for his blog.  I want to make something meaningful and unique - without too much literal imagery, and with a personal connection.  

Michelle's challenge was a perfectly timed starting place.  

To me, "lost time" isn't about time wasted, it's about time suspended.  The feeling of being so completely absorbed in a task that you lose all sense of time passing.  Orange is the color that immediately came to mind when I thought about more lost time.

I've been using lots of orange in my artwork this summer, and art is the number one way to suspend time.  I step into the studio and time stops.

My all-time favorite chair is orange.  It's huge, and overstuffed, with a giant matching ottoman.  I can read, nap, and even work in it for hours.  It's surrounded by books and has a handy spot for a cup of coffee or a glass of wine.  I'm usually joined by a cat or two.  It's one of the best places in the house to lose time.

My essential sleeping pillows are also orange and my lovely bed is another place time gets lost

The more I thought about this color association, the more images kept coming to me.  For my entire childhood, our basement was covered in wall-to-wall orange shag carpeting like this one.  I spent countless hours on that rug, and many of my best memories have that fuzzy orange backdrop.  Is there any time more "lost" than childhood?

So CLEARLY orange is the color of more lost time.  But not just any orange.  I scanned the many hues of orange paint I own and none of them were right.  Time to mix my own!


I started with five blobs of terracotta paint, and mixed in 5 different shades of orange.  

The scarlet mix and the vibrant orange mix had the most promise, but weren't right on their own.  I decided to keep mixing.  I add glazing medium to the vibrant orange mix and painted that on top of the scarlet mix.  It was interesting, but not quite right.  So I added glazing medium to the scarlet mix as well and then reversed the layers.   Perfect!

THIS is the color of more lost time.

Thanks to Michelle Ward for another fun crusade.  Hop on over to the GPP Street Team to see what other fabulous colors have been created this month and to play along with the other crusaders.