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Possible Match: Hot Lips 2077-30 (more below...)
Brand: Benjamin Moore

ColorTherapy will repost articles from our travelogue series for the month of August. See you in September!

I had another color epiphany on a recent trip to Puerto Vallarta. I’ve been traveling there for years, but have been looking at things anew since I started this column. Scales fell from my eyes...

Bugambilia is a bush with bright magenta flowers, and it’s everywhere. Mexico is vividly colorful, and you see color in the environment with midwinter sun, sea and flowering plants. It makes sense that nature is reflected in a cultural palette. The Huilchol people in particular use an explosive color language in their beadwork and textiles.

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I saw this color used outdoors and indoors; on walls, whole rooms and architectural details, and in decorative painting. A reader sent these photos of work by Mexican architect Luis Barragán. I wonder how we can translate this palette to a New York urban environment, or if our Los Angeles readers will enjoy this suggestion more than others. Possible color matches: Benjamin Moore Hot Lips 2077-30, Razzle Dazzle 1348; Ralph Lauren Racer Pink IB51.

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By the way, that’s Catrina in the first photo, after José Guadalupe Posada. Special thanks to my brother Scott for additional insights.

- Mark Chamberlain, interior and decorative painter

(ReEdited from 2007-02-13 - MC)