Figure 1 – A Study in Scarlet, IPhone Photograph, (c) DE Wolf 2014.

On Saturday I went to for a walk at the mall again.  I love these walks because, true to Bill Clinton style, they end in my sipping an intense double espresso in contemplation of the rest of the weekend. Early morning is a very peaceful time at the mall, and I had the chance to have one last look for the season at the Easter Bunny photographer with his smiling kids, crying kids, and kids not quite sure how to take the whole process in.  There was a bright sunlight made just a bit diffuse by light clouds filtering in the big skylights and this lit up the fashion exhibit in a beautiful way – not too high a contrast, not too dull.

I paused to photograph a glimmering wave of scarlet satin on one of the dresses to continue my IPhone collection of monotones. I include this as Figure 1. Scarlet is so amazingly intense to our eyes and it bears so many connotations to our collective literary consciousnesses: “The Scarlet Letter,” “The Scarlet Pimpernel,” and then, of course, there is the Arthur Conan Doyle story, “A Study in Scarlet.”

This 1886 novel derives its name from a speech that Sherlock Holmes gave to Dr. Watson in which he uses the metaphor “study in scarlet” to define the nature of his work:

“There’s the scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it.”

A study in art is meant to connote just that artistic notes or sketches preparatory to a greater work.  In the present case it gives me the opportunity to explore what happens when you combine flowing form with intense overwhelming color and there is certainly no color that is more intense to our eyes than a brilliant red.

In the meanwhile, the beautiful light, the budding trees and flowers, which this year seem to be in a race with one another, the pollens assaulting my sinuses all beckon me outside for other photographic studies and explorations.