bluestocking
The meat of Paint and Paper details artificial lighting,
proportion and scale, with subcategories dedicated to
each color family—complete with color charts and
Oliver’s own color-by-number scheme, Architectural
Colours. Nevertheless, Paint and Paper’s brilliance
lies not at all in its how-to nature. In fact, Oliver’s
instructional narrative is happily overshadowed by
the rich and plentiful photographs that flank it. The
imagery provides a deeper, more visceral education
than the charts and language ever could: inflections
of light in Frank Lloyd Wright’s stone-filled Storer
House, tonal variance in slate shower tile or hot pink
backlighting in a Turkish doorway. Photographs
range from elegant, creamy-hued Georgian drawing
rooms and ornately papered Victoriana to minimal
urban spaces where color variation appears only in
the day’s changing light.
Paint and Paper leads readers from inspiration to
interpretation to application. By far one of the most
captivating aspects of Paint and Paper is Oliver’s
description of his own personal color inspirations
throughout his reputable career. There are painters,
cinema, nature and even consumer products. Some
