I spent the majority of my summer working in Raleigh and Durham, North Carolina this year. One of the conversations that sticks in my mind is a friendly disagreement I had with friends over pink and red. They all felt that those colors clashed, while I think they're gorgeous together done right. One sweet Southerner named Charlotte agreed with me. We both exclaimed, "Look at Marimekko!" as the winning evidence (in our opinion). I'd also like to offer up Sarah Jessica Parker's color blocked hot pink pants and carmine blouse for further consideration.

I don't have the hot pink pants yet, but man do I daydream about a pair. I do wear one of my favorite ruffled sweaters which is my favorite shade of poppy-orangish-red. Paired with some hot pink polish, it provided inspiration for color study #47.

Color study #47: Marimekko Colors. My camera is rendering these colors on the cool side, but you can get the point while I save my money for a new one.

I added some ochre to give it a different look, and to stray from my standard bright colors when it comes to painting.

Speaking of which, I better get cracking if I want to meet my goal of 100 color study paintings by December 31, 2011. Let's start with the cracking tomorrow, shall we?