I love wearing red, it makes me feel better.
Not an unusual statement: it's a known scientific fact that certain colours have effects on the people who wear them. However, I am coming to realise that colours are far more integral to my sanity than to many humankind. It's one of those things you live with all your life and presume everyone else does until discovering otherwise, like having tinnitus or tunnel-vision.
I was listening to Jacky Niven, and watching her art demo. She has a condition called synaesthesia and although I don't have it in such a clear-cut way as her, some of what she was saying rang a bell and made perfect sense to me. Others in the audience simply found the phenomenon downright peculiar and even frightening. Heavens, no.
Many of my paintings are blue, or based on blue. I love blue sky. I love the sea. I love living in Stonehaven because we get plenty of blue skies. The sky is blue – even behind the clouds – because air scatters short-wavelength light more than longer wavelengths, and of all the rainbow colours on this earth from the sun, blue has the shortest wavelengths. We are surrounded by the blue! Blue is uplifting, a breath of fresh air.
So blue is not sad.
Red is not angry. Red is confident, warm, cosy and bright. For me it stands for brilliance, intensity, clarity of thought and positivity. Red needs to be in a painting, if only in a hint or a streak. Sometimes I need to paint a large canvas with red in a huge wide arc, with bold, dramatic brushstrokes, steeping myself in the beauty of red. Every house, every room, needs a red painting.
Jacky Niven described her synaesthesia as so clear-cut that triangles are yellow.
I could go through all the colours here, discussing the various shades and their nuances, what they mean to me and how I like to use them or not in my paintings but if I have any kind of synaesthesia (and I doubt I have, just an artistic brain) then my emotions, thoughts and memories are connected with colours – but they are not always the same colours. That would be too simple and … dare I say it: boring.
Not an unusual statement: it's a known scientific fact that certain colours have effects on the people who wear them. However, I am coming to realise that colours are far more integral to my sanity than to many humankind. It's one of those things you live with all your life and presume everyone else does until discovering otherwise, like having tinnitus or tunnel-vision.
I was listening to Jacky Niven, and watching her art demo. She has a condition called synaesthesia and although I don't have it in such a clear-cut way as her, some of what she was saying rang a bell and made perfect sense to me. Others in the audience simply found the phenomenon downright peculiar and even frightening. Heavens, no.
 |
| Acrylic on paper - size A3 |
Many of my paintings are blue, or based on blue. I love blue sky. I love the sea. I love living in Stonehaven because we get plenty of blue skies. The sky is blue – even behind the clouds – because air scatters short-wavelength light more than longer wavelengths, and of all the rainbow colours on this earth from the sun, blue has the shortest wavelengths. We are surrounded by the blue! Blue is uplifting, a breath of fresh air.
So blue is not sad.
Red is not angry. Red is confident, warm, cosy and bright. For me it stands for brilliance, intensity, clarity of thought and positivity. Red needs to be in a painting, if only in a hint or a streak. Sometimes I need to paint a large canvas with red in a huge wide arc, with bold, dramatic brushstrokes, steeping myself in the beauty of red. Every house, every room, needs a red painting.
Jacky Niven described her synaesthesia as so clear-cut that triangles are yellow.
I could go through all the colours here, discussing the various shades and their nuances, what they mean to me and how I like to use them or not in my paintings but if I have any kind of synaesthesia (and I doubt I have, just an artistic brain) then my emotions, thoughts and memories are connected with colours – but they are not always the same colours. That would be too simple and … dare I say it: boring.
2 comments:
Very interesting post. Would like to watch the video too.
Colour is a fascinating subject and I think skies can have an enormous effect on us. Strangely enough I have two sky paintings on the go too.
Love your sky here with the cheery blue pushing away the dark clouds. x
Thank you, Fran.
I haven't been able to find a relevant video online I'm afraid. This was a talk and demo given to our local Art Club.
Will be interested to find something on YouTube though. (Avoiding music bands with the same name - sounds so ideally psychedelic!) x
Post a Comment