Rainbow Journeyman’s diary

One of the cheeriest ways we know of brightening up a room is colour, contrasting pictures, and using framed decor. (No, thats not the demented cry of a crow, trying to tell an apple eater what to do with the remains!)

Serious for a second. A very good friend of ours who is a frame maker in Penzance tells many a tale of people who come to him with a superb pictures/prints to be framed. Then against better judgement and advice, choose from his incredible collection an absolutely naff frame as a surround. (And wait, there’s more!) Then they add value to the insult by picking out a mount that shouldn’t be seen in a funeral parlour with the lights out. The frame detracts from the mount which detracts from the picture and so on.

In a word YUK! Now its not up to us to tell you what goes with what. We are not part of the nanny state. But look around you at what nature does and you will get some good ideas of what blends with what. And if you are really stuck, go to your local B & Q and borrow one of their colour charts. You know it makes sense.

Then if you care to look seriously at our WEB site at www.rjsw.co.uk. Go on I dare you! Choose a picture that you like. There are one or two there. Enlarge the picture by clicking on it and study it for a while. Seriously, look at it. Go on don’t be fright.

Looking’s free.

Now imagine it as a big centre piece in your Lounge or Dining Area. Something that’s there to attract your eye and to give you something to enjoy on those long winter evenings when the rain is trying to beat out your windows. Its beautiful and it allows you to dream of summers to come.

Now take a second look. (Double dare you!!) Pick something that themes the room itself, (the one you are in!! Not mine).
Large pictures of gloriously evolving sunsets really enhance the darker colours of furniture. The room glows with the warmth of the picture.

To give you a few ideas and opinions. Landscapes, suit Browns Tans and Yellow (Pine) furniture and tend to match all pastel shades.
Now look deeply at the artistic depth of the picture feel the quality of the subject to capture and take your focal viewing out towards the horizon. Live the picture a little. As your eye follows into it, looking at detail, you lose yourself into another world. It gives your room a feeling of grandure and dimension. In some ways its a bit like looking out of a window onto a beautiful country scene. It has a wow factor.

“Statement prints” also work to capture your moods. So whats a statement print? Well. Hm, what we mean by this are abtracts, patterns or solitary flower pictures. Try placing them mentally in toilets, (not in the bowl stupid!) and bathrooms, they make the room seem to smell sweeter. Don’t believe me? Try it. Experts will tell you that the brain is often fooled by a experience of seeing a flower in full colour; enough to help you remember the fragrance or perfume of the flower, or if you have chosen it the fresh ambience and salty smell of an Atlantic Sea Scape. Still unsure. Then think back to when you were a kid. Do you remember the smell of a newly cut hedge, or lawn? Most of us do.

No, not you high rise flat dwellers. An Albatross is probably more your mark. Regrettably, yours is probably a memory of a Hyacinth in a window box. And in our opinion all the more reason for you to bring the countryside or a seascape into your living area. Never mind the spray from the beach or the odd touch of hay fever. Its worth it for the effect that it adds to your life style. That is until you can get down here and join us next year!!

Now, if you are Hypertense. That’s the bit where you find yourself digging your fingernails into the palms of your hands without realsing it. Or your shoulder muscles get cramped because you appear no to be able to relax. (No no you Greg. You bite your fingernails and you are so laid back so it may not work.) Anyway as I was saying. A picture can help relieve stress. Just as simple as using them like the window I said about earlier.

Hey, so now lets add to that, good pictures can do more if you want them to. Remember the SAD syndrome. (Seasonally Adjusted Disorder.) It is caused by lack of sunlight and experts say…………… drab colours. You can believe that can’t you? Summer sunshine brings out the flowers and trees which add colour to our lives and we gain the “feel good” factor.
No, don’t get it wrong. That’s not the one that the Chancellor expects of all good citizens. Just because he has told you that since being in power he has dumped you with buckets of money to spend and halved all taxation!! Hang about. What’s that noise? Cuckoo, cuckoo! Must be spring already. I’ve just heard another Government sponsored Cuckoo.
No, no, put that thought aside for a moment. “Feel good” I said not “feel depressed”.

Let’s take a look at a lot of pictures. Pictures make you feel good.

Little known fact. Very soon you can from our site get the benefit of owning your own relaxation aid in the form of sixty to seventy pictures burned onto a DVD, complete with relaxing music. (Or not, if you want it silent) You can play the sequence on your PC or TV and you can capture the moods of the West Country from the warmth of your home..

Lets try that inside your head . Imagine. You are in your favourite chair, good book to hand, with a glass of your favourite tipple placed within easy reach. Tense from your day in the office , or the farm…or the……..you can fill in the occupation…you know where you work, or don’t as the case may be.
So what’s missing? Book’s good. Wine’s fine! Ah, but add to this scene your own favourite choice of DVD, replaying a series of quality pictures displayed in full living colour of Seascapes, Landscapes, and Beautiful views including the many deserted beaches for you to feel wistful over. That does it. That’s what you needed.
In essense you are following a Rainbow Journeyman round a camera shoot. Not any old bunch of pictures. But the West Country of Devon and Cornwall. Simply a wonderful way to relax. Each picture quietly fading and blending with the next, showing some of the best of the West Country…………… all from the comfort of your living room. Try it.

All for now.
More again soon

Mike Tyrrell