Robust Gust Ultramarine

From the Latin robustus, of oak — implying strength combined with substance. As a color modifier, robust describes saturation combined with body: a robust burgundy, a robust olive. Sits in the bold-and-warm corner alongside strong and solid, with the slightly textural implication of a color that has substance behind the pigment.

Old Norse gustr, sudden-burst-of-wind. As a color modifier, gust implies a sudden-burst-and-cliff-top-and-driven quality, the visual register of Cornish-cliff-and-Hebridean-gust hand-sudden-burst-and-cliff-top-and-driven Cornish-cliff-and-Hebridean-gust-and-North-Atlantic-front gust-and-sudden-burst-and-cliff-top surfaces under Cornish-cliff-and-Hebridean-gust-and-North-Atlantic-front Lizard-Point-and-Outer-Hebrides-and-Faroe-passage cliff-top-wind-light. Sits at the modifier-and-weather end of the grid, parallel to zephyr and mistral 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.