Looming Avalon Ultramarine

Middle English lomen, to appear vaguely — present-participle of loom. As a color modifier, looming implies a deep-and-vague-and-imposing quality, the dark cool-gray of fog-veiled-and-distant cliff-or-mountain-mass against the sky. Sits at the deep-and-imposing end of the grid, parallel to imposing and towering.

Old Welsh Afallon, island-of-apples-Arthurian-otherworld. As a color modifier, avalon implies an Arthurian-otherworld-and-island-of-apples quality, the visual register of Arthurian-Avalon-and-Glastonbury-Tor hand-Arthurian-otherworld-and-island-of-apples Arthurian-Avalon-and-Glastonbury-Tor-and-Morgan-le-Fay avalon-and-Arthurian-otherworld surfaces under Arthurian-Avalon-and-Glastonbury-Tor-and-Morgan-le-Fay Glastonbury-Tor-and-Somerset-Levels misty-otherworld-light. Sits at the modifier-and-myth end of the grid, parallel to eden and helen in usage.

The pigment ground from lapis lazuli — the Afghan mineral imported through Venice in the late Middle Ages, more expensive by weight than gold during the Renaissance. The color refers to a freshly mixed ultramarine pigment in linseed oil: a saturated, slightly violet-shifted deep blue with the matte finish of micron-ground rock. Deeper than cobalt, cooler than royal, with the art-historical weight of the blue Vermeer reserved for Mary's robe.