
Use the COLOUR TOOLS dropdown menu above to find out more about each individual product or simply scroll down through this list of each of our Moriarty Colour tools, products, books and courses, and what they can do to help you get the most out of your colours.
Please don't hesitate to CONTACT us for any further information or you can read more about the creators of the Moriarty Colour tools, products, books and courses, Merv Moriarty OAM and Prue Acton OBE, on our ABOUT US page.
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Merv Moriarty OAM and Derivan have teamed up to offer unique colour sets to further your understanding of basic colour theory while aiming at refining your colour mixing skills. These carefully chosen sets of paints — based on colour science and experience — will allow you to achieve the widest range of pure or subtle colours with the least amount of effort. Also in these sets, you will find Merv Moriarty's own teachings, set out as clear and conscice instructions on colour mixing.
Merv Moriarty Matisse Paint Sets include either nine or five professional quality Matisse Structure acrylic colours, as well as the inclusion of Matisse Open Medium (in the larger sets only), which facilitates by slowing down drying time and over-painting of colours with a controlled translucency.
The range includes Merv Moriarty's Essential COLOURS Set, Merv Moriarty's Fine Art COLOURS Set and Merv Moriarty's Art & Design COLOURS Set.
The Colour Mixing exercise in the video below, using Derivan Matisse Acrylics, shows Merv Moriarty demonstrating mixing two complementaries (opposites on the colour wheel), Magenta and Green, to make black or grey.
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For information about workshops on colour and colour relationship, and for demonstrations using the Moriarty Colour Wheel contact Prue Acton or visit Prue Acton's website.
You can also keep abreast of everything to do with Moriarty Colour through our social media feeds:
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Merv Moriarty OAM has written and illustrated this 380-page document, covering colour from the artists and designers perspective, based on science and research in which you, his students, have played a major part.
COLOUR - the definitive guide is based on Merv's theory of colour relationship and systems of colour:
Special fold out pages reveal Merv's original theories about colour as light, colour as pigment and his three-section colour wheel system. His other original theories covering interval and linkage and his work with thousands of students, proves that "right colour" is objective, not subjective. This document will open a world of possibilities in colour and take your work to new heights.
COLOUR - the definitive guide was launched at the National Library of Australia by Andrew Sayers AM, Director of the National Museum of Australia, on the 6th of September, 2012.
''So Merv's subject is principally relationships. And it's here that the book really sings – intervals, linkages, harmonies, complementary, simultaneous contrast – this last he calls 'the light maker'. If you read anything by Matisse – and Matisse is always rewarding to read on art – he talks everywhere about the capacity of paintings and drawings to generate light. I'm sure he would have seen eye to eye with Merv on many things.
''So - whether you use COLOUR - the definitive guide as a tool to understand your craft, to hone your perception, to understand why certain relationships work (and others don't) or for its unique and personal insights into the deeper philosophical dimensions of the subject – you will be rewarded.
''Sensitivity to colour is immensely satisfying – it's one of the things that enriches our lives in the world. But I think most of us are unsure about, or insecure about our responses.
''Artists share this sense; it is only after a day of painting – trying to see and match tones and hues - that the artist starts to see the immense colour possibilities all around.
''COLOUR - the definitive guide is a labour of love.''
Extract from speech by Andrew Sayers AM, Director of the National Museum of Australia, September 2012 Book Launch at the National Library of Australia.
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THE EYE'S MIND - the artist and the draftsman looks at drawing skills from the point of view of the way the mind behind the eye creates the experience of vision for us. A closer and deeper look at the way the mind creates our visible world can reveal to us that drawing is an essentially human ability to make direct contact with our own vision system and apply the fruits of this contact. At the same time it is an ability to tap into the very centre of our consciousness, our imagination. It is this imagination that creates the world we experience and yet at the same time provides us with the tools to modify it and (to quote from Fitzgerald's Omar Khayyam) remold it nearer to the hearts desire.
To tap into this ability at an effective level requires skills, not only of the hand but also of the mind. This book focuses on each of these skills separately and together providing you with a deeper understanding of their real nature. Exercises that help you to develop these skills and understandings are clearly described.
THE EYE'S MIND - the artist and the draftsman begins with fundamental drawing and draftsmanship principles and develops through a series of steps covering everything that the artist-draftsman needs to know.
This book puts you in touch with the analytical factors that the mind behind the eye uses to create form and space. In turn this potentially gives you command over the intellectual tools that can create a visual world on paper or canvas just as you intend.
Rightness of form and structure has been a fundamental pursuit of artists since the earliest times and this rightness has its roots in factors of a mathematical nature. These factors are addressed toward the end of this book and will, I believe, throw light on a matter that could give you access to understanding and skills that will lift your work out of the ordinary to another level. It will also help those who wish to understand art and the forces that not only lie at the heart of all great art, but also underlie our appreciation of nature and of beauty.
THE EYE'S MIND - the artist and the draftsman was launched at the National Library of Australia by His Excellency Michael Bryce AM AE on the 22nd of June, 2010.
''I can't help thinking that Leonardo would have liked this book - it leaves us in no doubt that he (Merv) is the master of his craft ... The narrative is about perception of proportion and space and the ''mind's eye'' ability to evaluate such things - and it is about philosophy and the architecture of nature ... outstanding scholarship on this new work ...''
- His Excellency Michael Bryce AM AE
''Over the years I have been surprised at just how many artists whom I have met who at one time or another have been exposed to and inspired by Moriarty's teachings ... This is a sincere, committed and well written book by a passionate teacher whose inspiration has touched many ... A valuable and alternative voice in the Australian art education scene ...''
- Sasha Grishin, art critic and author
''Today Moriarty is recognised as an innovator in art education, having changed the way art is taught in Queensland. Around the country, ex students are achieving recognition, not just as artists but also in all areas of creative endeavour.''
- Prue Acton O.B.E. Doctor of Arts honoris causa RMIT University
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Merv and Prue are working on a new document, draft title: COLOUR Relationship – for artists, designers and everyone who loves colour.
Prue and Merv's interest lies in bringing the principles of the Moriarty Colour Wheel to the next generation of artists, designers and educators and the colour industry, nationally and internationally.
Prue's vision is broadening the reach of the colour wheel and other moriarty COLOUR tools, investigating the new offset and digital printing opportunities for colour accuracy. And to digitalizing the moriarty COLOUR space.
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