First let’s address the important things in life, which to some of us is candy. Can you recall the exact flavor of that rather esoteric, violet hued wafer in a package of Neccos?

 For all of you poets, can you think of a word that rhymes with purple? This I had to look up and sure enough there is one word, hirple. Hirple is a Scottish word meaning to limp? 

Do you like to read? Read any Purple-licious books lately?  The Color Purple comes to mind, but I am thinking more elementary, like Purple Hair, I Don’t Care by Diane Young, or Harold and the Purple Crayon by Jodi Huelin? My prize goes to Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes. No well dressed, fanciful, girly mouse would carry less than a purple plastic purse. That is really Purple-licious!

Okay, we are really on a Purple-licious-roll, so would you say that purple is a “boy color” or a “girl color?” If you checked in with my grand children you would find only the girls want to wear all purple; paint their bedroom walls and toe nails lavender; and sashay around in Purple-licious feather boas and sparkly high heels. Okay, one grandson loves his purple satin pirate sash.

We all know that purple is the color of “royalty.” At least it used to be. The pigments required to make purple were very costly indeed, so worn only by those royal some bodies, with regal titles like emperor, king, queen and prime minister. Let’s see, does President Bush have a Purple-licious cowboy hat?

Purple’s most symbolic gesture of royalty and honor is the Purple Heart Medal that is bestowed to men and women who were wounded or died in the service of our country.

Now that we are deep into a discussion of purple, it really is quite a fascinating color. Purple is one of three secondary colors on the color wheel and sits opposite sunny yellow. There are a hundred and one variations on the color purple which is what makes it so Purple-licious. There is warm reddish maroon; dark and mysterious indigo; Pottery Barn gray-lavender; and off in outer space rests neon purple which is rather a wildish pink. Want to see a smoldering Indigo-Purple, check our Georgia O’Keefe’s Black Purple Petunias. Then there are van Gogh’s self portrait sketches done on bluish-purple backgrounds with lots of purple flesh tones, or any of his scrumptious paintings of irises.  

In elementary school we knew it was painting day when we put on our dad’s old dress shirt, buttoned backwards. Like eager little cooks we happily stirred up color concoctions. Our aspirations were high. Hopefully when we dutifully mixed the prescribed blue and red we ended up with Purple-licious. What better color to spread thick and luscious over our imaginary cupcakes.

While blissfully young we happily mixed any blue with any red and loved our purples. But at some point we “grew up” and our Purple-licious tastes become more sophisticated. So here is my take: buy Dioxazine Purple or Quinacridone Violet and paint simply purple. If you don’t care for instant-gratification-tube color, start mixing various amounts of ultramarine blue with permanent alizarin crimson. Now this is where the fun begins. Go ahead, mix any blue with any red and invent your own Purple-licious recipe.

And while you are at it take a dollop of Permalba White and add a dash of Dioxazine Purple and you will have a lightly lavender tinted white, a magnificent accent white. (A little tip picked up from a talented painter, Connie Winters)

Have you figured out the flavor of the lavender Necco?  Before you are tempted to run out and buy a package the answer is: Clove!  Who would have thought!

What are you favorite Purple-licious colors?