Still Life Style: Color Blocking

In today’s edition of Still Life Style, we take a look at what’s going on behind the action. More often than not, still life backgrounds seem to involve some sort of color blocking, like the image above from Wessel Baarda. We’ve definitely seen a lot of this diagonal/geo color blocking in home decor and DIY projects as well. If you’re interested in how to celebrate color blocking in the realm of interior design, check out this recent post I wrote for Decoist. For this post, however, we’re keeping our feet firmly planted in still life territory. Let’s take a look at some vibrant photographs, shall we?…

On the Diagonal

We begin with color blocking involving two hues that meet on the diagonal. This look has made a big impact on product photography, still life art photography, and even DIY blogging. I’m not the only blogger to have been hugely influenced by color blocking. Below is an image I created for a tropical terrarium DIY:

Pastels make the perfect color blocking complements. The next photo is “Pear and Card”, a 2013 creation by Adam Grüning. As you can tell by the date of this image, color blocking in still life photography is not a brand new trend. Yet it’s still going strong.

Linear Style

Not all color blocking involves diagonals. Sometimes two or more colors converge along straight lines. This delicious pastel pineapple image comes from stylist Clare Nicolson:

Below we see a Bloc Necklace from Ladies & Gentlemen Studio, photographed against a purple and yellow color blocked background. Read more about L&G Studio’s Bloc Necklaces and see more fabulous color blocking in this Mirror80 fashion post.

Many still life photos that showcase color blocking involve a colorful wall and an equally colorful floor. This Memphis-fabulous vignette is by Dutch artist Wyne Veen:

Colorful Angles

We end with a couple of still life photos that celebrate the power of overlapping paper in angular arrangements. A minty palm frond rests on a peachy-pink background in this image that’s taken Tumblr by storm (originally found on stylist Clare Nicolson’s Full Time Fiesta):

Here’s one more pineapple still life, this time from Adrian Woods and Gidi van Maarseveen of Art & Motion. The paper is arranged at right angles, then photographed at a slant: