Painted plates
Browse 110 hand-labelled samples and their closest living or mineral correspondences.
A cabinet of observed hues
Morrow’s
A modern reconstruction of a field naturalist’s chromatic notebook, with specimens, pigment histories and cross-references from feather, flower and stone.
Explore the ledgerWall studies
Large-format charts turn the ledger’s comparisons into measured, useful references.
Field notebook
Read the annotations that connect pigments to shells, birds, petals and weathered rock.
The complete comparison
Colours
These entries were recorded across gardens, shorelines and cabinet collections. Each named sample is paired with the nearest colour the observer could find in animal, vegetable and mineral form.
Whites
Greys
Blacks
Blues
Purples
Greens
Yellows
Oranges
Reds
Browns
Whites
ColourNameAnimalVegetableMineralParts
1. Shell White
Breast of the winter tern
Snowdrop petals
Carrara dust
2. Reed White
Egg of the grey gull
Christmas rose
Porcelain earth
3. Pearl White
Kingfisher throat
White campion
Aragonite
4. Hawthorn White
Egret wing
Hawthorn blossom
Chalk and tripoli
Greys
ColourNameAnimalVegetableMineralParts
5. Ash Grey
Long-tailed hen
Fresh wood ash
Flint
6. Smoke Grey
Robin breast-shadow
Dried sage
Slate
7. Fern Grey
Pied wagtail
Fern underside
Basalt sand
8. Greenish Grey
Robin quill
Ash bark
Wacke clay
Blacks
ColourNameAnimalVegetableMineralParts
9. Greyish Black
Water-ousel breast
Black oat
Basalt
10. Blue Black
Black slug mantle
Crowberry
Cobalt glass
11. Brownish Black
Lapwing breast
Walnut hull
Hornblende
12. Velvet Black
Black cock tail
Ripe elderberry
Obsidian
Blues
ColourNameAnimalVegetableMineralParts
13. Scotch Blue
Blue tit throat
Grape anemone
Azurite
14. Prussian Blue
Mallard wing
Bluish aril
Copper ore
15. Indigo Blue
Dragonfly casing
Indigofera leaf
Lapis dust
16. Azure Blue
Emerald manakin breast
Grape hyacinth
Blue copper
Greens
ColourNameAnimalVegetableMineralParts
17. Pine Green
Greenfinch crown
Scots pine needle
Malachite shadow
18. Moss Green
Tree frog flank
Oak moss
Serpentine
19. Reed Green
Teal neck shadow
River reed
Green earth
20. Lichen Green
Parakeet underwing
Old wall lichen
Olive jasper
Reds
ColourNameAnimalVegetableMineralParts
21. Oxblood Red
Redstart tail
Damson skin
Red ochre
22. Madder Red
Waxwing tip
Madder root
Iron oxide
23. Brick Red
Red squirrel flank
Beech bud
Terracotta
24. Coral Red
Flamingo covert
Quince blossom
Cinnabar trace