Living Colour Chart

About the project

Colour transcends the visual; it evokes memories, triggers emotions, and awakens sensations. Whether it’s the colour of a cherished possession, the brilliance of the natural world, a colour you like to wear or live with, which affects you spiritually or mentally, or evokes a powerful memory. Colour shapes our lived experience in deeply personal ways.

Since February 2024 Margo Selby has been collecting colours from people with their associated memories and stories to create a live and dynamic colour chart which reflects the people in our world. This project now comes to Canterbury Cathedral. We are curious to know what colours and stories the Cathedral community and visitors have to share .

What colour do you have a connection with?

Submit your colour and the personal connection you have with it. We want you to be part of our Living Colour Chart to create a picture which reflects the people who come to Canterbury Cathedral.

PARTICIPATE | Scroll down to submit your colour, and view our growing Living Colour Chart.

Margo Selby | Artist

Colour: Yves Klein Blue | It's powerful + electric

Margo Selby is a British textile artist and designer working with colour and geometric form.

Just 25 minutes from Canterbury Cathedral, Margo’s textile art and weaving studio welcomes visitors to view the studio looms, and gain insight into the process and creation of her textiles.

The Margo Selby studio is open to visitors 10am - 4pm Monday to Friday.

Unit 114
Joseph Wilson Industrial Estate
Millstrood Road
Whitstable
Kent
CT5 3SN

E: info@margoselby.com | T: +44 (0) 1227 282758

To contact the Margo Selby Studio to discuss art commissions or design projects email: info@margoselby.com

Ellen | Colour: Merlin's Robe Purple | The colour we painted our living room in our first flat together. My partner likes it so much he requested it for our new house.

Mel | Colour: Navy Blue | It just goes with all my favourite colours.

Leonie | Colour: Cobalt Blue | The colour of the background in the 12th century typological windows. Almost impossible to photograph, and not at all possible to reproduce in CMYK.

Fred | Colour: Arctic Turquoise | It's the middle of my favourite range of colours.

Kay | Colour: Sky Blue | The happiest of colours, sky blue reminds us of the expansiveness of the universe with our own tiny world therein. My whole family have blue eyes -- my late mother having the most piercing blue ones in particular.

Abi | Colour: Seafoam | It's a favourite colour I share with a really special friend, it connects us.

Olivia | Colour: Acid Green | It just speaks to me! and it goes with pink and orange, vibrant and happy.

Cressida | Colour: Shamrock Green | This colour reminds me of nature and of Ireland, where I grew up.

David | Colour: Mid Green | It reminds me of my background in the west of Ireland - soft, lush and healing

Gerardo | Colour: Vantablack or Black 3.0 | An absence of distraction. Purity of intent and an envelopment of all other colours. Space, dark matter and eternity. And a little black number is always a classic :-)

Louise | Colour: Chocolate Brown | It was the colour of the 1980s kitchen counter I sat at every morning where my father would make us hot chocolate and my mother a cup of tea. It was my favourite time of the day.

Nathan | Colour: Violet | Violet is my daughter's name so it has a very special association, beyond just being one of my favourite colours.

Windahl | Colour: Purple Violet | As a child I was small, on the autistic scale, very sensitive, quiet, extremely introverted and shy. I was very sensitive to colour. Everything had to be purple. My room, all my clothes, and decor objects. I was always drawn to the colour. The smell of violets reminds me also of my grandmother. Grape juice was my favourite. I loved picking blueberries and used to do this at the cottage and raspberries were also a favourite. In our garden I loved the purple flowers most. The lilacs, alliums, tulips, irises, are favourites. My dad had fuchsias in hanging baskets and I thought these were the most exotic things. I associated the colour not with royalty or prestige but as comfort. To this day I still wear purple a lot, the garden has lots of purple flowers, including fuchsias. I include flashes of the colour purple in my towels, bedding, rug and incorporate into my home decor.

Trace | Colour: French Fuchsia | Because it’s such a beautiful colour which is warm and happy.

Amy | Colour: Ketchup Red | The colour of my favourite rucksack whilst travelling around Japan. It reminds me so much of the beautiful buildings and temples, a colour I associate with this adventure. It's also the colour of my favourite condiment - ketchup!

Peter | Colour: Ziegler Coral | It's the impossible to match coral colour of 1880s Ziegler Sultanabad rugs. Approximately Pantone Coral Rose but with the beautiful variations of the abrash.

Livvy | Colour: Sunset Peach | The colour I always chase since moving to Whitstable.

Amy | Colour: Marigold Yellow | It's such a joyful colour that makes me smile. My favourite coat was bright marigold and I have lots of fond memories going for walks with my family in it.