The story of why Portuguese buildings are yellow and blue

When we were working on Shelfie back in deepest, darkest January, with short shooting days, the colours du jour were irrefutably pale pink, copper and a whisper of green.

As we decided upon the blue and yellow cover, it felt like the antithesis to this: bright, bold and the very essence of sunny summers days near a cool ocean.

Blue and yellow are colours you see everywhere in Portugal, where I visited in August 2018. It’s said that houses have blue on them to ward against evil spirits (it derives from the blue Moorish ‘evil eye’) and yellow because  it contains an insecticide to ward off beasties.

I love finding out about colour and how it relates to the history of how we use our places and spaces.

Martha, The Colour File x 

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