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About Colour: Green

November 2, 2015 By Leave a Comment

About Colour: Green

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About Green

Green is the colour of the vegetable realm. It represents fruitfulness, prosperity, tranquility, vitality, youth, longevity, harmony, life, balance and the environment. It relates to going forward, and safety. This colour is linked to our traffic light system – “Go”.   When green inclines towards yellow we think of Spring and early Summer bringing forth hope, joy and the buds of new growth. On the other side of the scale its negative meanings are envy, greed, jealousy, immaturity, inexperience, naïve, gullible, ignorance, juvenile, and illness.

Green in Different Cultures

  • In Western culture: Green means Spring, new birth, go, money, St. Patrick’s Day, Christmas combined with red. It also means luck as symbolized by a green shamrock, and eco friendliness. A plot of grassy land, the Green party
  • Ireland: Irish Catholic nationalists
  • Eastern: Eternity, fertility, family, health, prosperity, “clean, and contamination free” and peace
  • Egypt: Green is a sacred color representing hope and joy of Spring
  • China: Green hats imply a man’s wife has been unfaithful (infidelity). In the Ming Dynasty green was the colour of the heavens.
  • India: The colour of Islam, new beginnings, and harvest
  • Native Indians: Of Face paint – nature, harmony and healing and of War Paint – endurance. The Apache tribe considered green to represent one of the four sacred mountains.
  • Indonesia: a forbidden colour
  • North Africa: corruption
  • South America: death

The Theory of Green

  • Green is a secondary colour located midway between the primaries yellow and blue on the colour wheel.  Yellow and blue mixed create green.
  • It’s character of expression changes depending on the ratio of these primaries in the mixture. This ratio will reflect its colour temperature.
  • More yellow makes green lighter and more blue makes green darker.
  • The range of different greens is wide.  There are lime greens (yellow-greens), jade greens, aqua greens, turquoise greens, and emerald greens.
  • A little red and a large area of green will make the red energetic and lively.
  • A little red added to green will dull the green making it less intense descending into a gray-black.  This will happen with any complementary pair.
  • A high percentage of men are genetically red/green colour-blind and have difficulty distinguishing some greens.

A Poem About Green

“What is Green?”

Green is the colour between blue and yellow.
Green is the grass that makes me mellow.
Green is a sign of buds in Summer.
Green is an emerald for a lover.

Green practices are environmentally beneficial.
Green with ivy is superficial.
Green is the colour of Kermit the Frog
Green is not the colour of a sheep dog.

Green is harmony, life and balance.
Green around the gills is a challenge.
Green is the smell of pine needles burning.
Green is a sign of Spring returning.

Author: Donna Wilson

Stay Connected: In future blogs I will discuss more on the topic of colours.  Do check out my website at www.donnawilsonartist.com

 

Filed Under: Color, Colour, Creativity, Expressive, Psychology of Colour Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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About Colour: Orange

October 28, 2015 By Leave a Comment

ABOUT COLOUR: ORANGE

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About Orange

The colour orange radiates warmth and happiness. In the world around us it’s the colour of vivid sunsets, fire, flowers, vegetables and many fruits. It’s the colour of Halloween, pumpkins, and marmalade, it is also the colour of festivity and amusement.

Orange means energy, vitality, excitement, activity, adventure, and risk.

Orange is associated with vitamin C and good health. Orange is symbolic of the Fall season. The colour Orange is associated with Protestantism.

Orange as a flourescent colour is used for high visibility. It is worn as vests for construction workers, cyclists, city traffic site workers and police officers. Orange cones are used as construction zone marking and safety equipment.  Orange is the colour of school buses.

It is a popular colour for sports teams because of its high visibility and association with activity.

There are a broad spectrum of orange tints and shades like terracotta, cinnamon, melon, peach, salmon, and burnt sienna.

Orange in Different Cultures

  • Because of its symbolic meaning as the colour of activity, orange is often used as the colour of political and social movement. Orange is the party colour for too many countries to mention.
  • This colour as mentioned above is a popular colour for sports teams.
  • Western Culture: Orange is a theme color for Halloween, halloween jack-o-lanterns, halloween decorations, and pumpkins.  This makes sense because it is the color associated with autumn and harvest.
  • The Dutch national sports teams, Australian Football League, Indian Premier League, Ukrainian Premier League, Bulgarian A Professional Football Group, Gaelic Athletic Association, United Football League, Philippine Basketball Association, Scottish Premier League, Norwegian Premier League and the Canadian Football League. [information from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_(colour)]
  • India: Orange is incorporated in the flag of India
  • Niger: Orange is on the Flag of Niger representing the Sahara desert and the orange disk symbolizes either the sun or independence.
  • United Kingdom: orange stands for the Northern Irish Protestants. Orange is on the flag of Ireland.
  • Netherlands: The Royal family of the Netherlands belongs to the House of orange. It is the national colour of the Netherlands.
  • In Asia: it is the symbolic and sacred colour of Buddhism – illumination, the highest state of perfection. The saffron colours of robes to be worn by monks. This colour is also symbolic and a sacred colour of Hinduism.
  • China: In ancient China, orange represented transformation.

Theory of Orange

  • Orange is a secondary colour located midway between the primaries yellow and Red on the colour wheel. It’s character of expression changes depending on the ratio of these primaries in the mixture. This ratio will reflect its colour temperature. More yellow makes the orange lighter and more red makes orange darker.
  • Orange became a important colour for all the impressionist painters. They understood colour theory, and they knew that orange placed next to it’s complement blue made both colours brighter as seen in the painting Sunrise by Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s painting Oarsmen at Chatou.
  • Paul Gauguin used orange paint as backgrounds, for clothing and skin colour, to fill his paintings with light and exoticism.
  • Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was very fond of orange, the colour of amusement.
  • Claude Monet painted a series of haystacks with the colour orange.

Things Orange

  • Fruit: Apricots, Butternut squash, Cantaloupe, Cape Gooseberries, Carrots, Golden kiwifruit, Grapefruit, Mangoes, Nectarines, Oranges, Papayas, Peaches, Persimmons, Pineapples, Pumpkins, Rutabagas, Sweet corn, Tangerines.
  • Vegetables: Orange bell pepper, butternut squash, yams, carrots.
  • Flowers: California poppy, flowering maple, pot marigold, Asiatic lily, butterfly wee, Asiatic lily, ‘Klondike’ cosmos, Iceland poppy, helenium, lantana, fritillaria.
  • Gemstones: Garnet, Mexican fire opal, orange beryl, orange tourmaline, Malaya garnet, Orange sapphire, poppy topaz, mandarin garnet, Mexican jelly opal, orange diamond, orange sunstone, orange zircon, citrine, orange amber, peach moonstone, sardonyx, orange agate, Picasso marble, peach aventurine, palm wood, orange fluorite, orange beryl.
  • Animals: Lions, tigers, orangutans, red river hogs, fire fox, gila monster, dart frog, orange Julius butterflies, monarch butterflies, goldfish, Irish setter.
  • Other: Garfield comic strips, cheese, a lion’s blaze, Cheetos, Doritos, traffic cones, orange soda, pennies, loonies, Vitamin C, life vests, the gates at Central Park, Ernie from The Muppets, Home Depot Logo, Kraft macaroni & cheese, The Golden Gate Bridge, Beeker the Muppet, nail polish, lipstick, basketballs, campfires and sunsets.

 

Stay connected for future posts about colour.  My website: www.donnawilsonartist.com

Filed Under: Art, Color, Colour, Expressive, Painting Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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About Colour: Yellow

October 17, 2015 By Leave a Comment

ABOUT COLOUR: YELLOW

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About Yellow

Yellow is the most luminous and lightest of hues. It loses this light-giving quality as soon as you add black or gray or violet. When black is added it becomes like a sap green. Yellow is the one hue that rapidly changes its character when mixed with another colour.  This hue represents happiness, optimism, the sun and light. Paintings of the early masters symbolized heavenly light using a golden yellow.   When a person is smiling, he/she is glowing from the inside out.

In everyday language, to say “ a light bulb went on” or to say “to see the light” meant the realization of an unsolved problem. The hidden truth was uncovered. To say that a person is bright is to say that he/she is intelligent. Therefore, yellow symbolizes knowledge and understanding. When yellow is altered it opposed understanding and becomes expressions of betrayal, envy, distrust, and doubt.

The colour yellow is everywhere in nature. It is the colour of sunflowers, tulips, daffodils, bananas, lemons, budgies, cockatiels, canaries and parrots. It’s the colour of Springtime. Yellow alerts us of danger. It is the caution light on our traffic lights.

Yellow in Different Cultures

  • In Western culture yellow is a sign of cowardliness and treason.
  • In Chinese culture yellow corresponds to the earth. It represents good luck. Yellow is considered the most beautiful and esteemed hues. This colour often decorates royal places, altars and temples. It was the colour worn by their emperors.
  • In Japan, yellow represents heroism.
  • In Mexico, the marigolds are an important Day of the Dead symbol.
  • The American Indians wore face paints and one of their favourite colours was yellow considered the sun’s colour, the setting sun, symbolic of beauty, sincerity, and peace. During the puberty ceremonial, an apaches ritual, the girl’s dress was dyed yellow, the colour of pollen, which in itself represents fertility (from the book, “Indian Dances of North America” on page 130, Chapter 9, Reginald and Gladys Laubin).

The Theory of Yellow

  • Yellow is one of the three primary colours. It is a warm colour located on the warm half of the colour wheel. It is situated at the top of the wheel with its complementary colour, violet, directly below. It is sandwiched between Yellow-orange and Yellow-green. In its purity it is the most luminous and lightest of all the hues.
  • Yellow loses it’s light-giving quality as soon as you add black or gray or violet. When black is added it becomes like a sap green. Yellow is the one hue that rapidly changes its character when mixed with another colour.
  • When yellow is surrounded by orange it blends optically to appear like a light orange. When yellow is surrounded by black and other dark tones, it becomes more radiant, strong, aggressive and energetic. On the other side of the scale, when yellow is surrounded by white it becomes subdued and subservient.
  • HANSA YELLOW LIGHT: is a yellow-green as it has some blue added.  It is considered to be a cool yellow compared to a yellow-orange.
  • CADMIUM YELLOW: is a yellow-orange as it has a red bias

A Poem About Yellow

“What is Yellow?”

Yellow is a sunflower,
A banana,
A feather from
A songbird,
The sun,
The brightest colour
Of all colours.
Yellow is a happy face
That glows from inside out.
Yellow is a buttercup
With petals to say he loves me
And he loves me not.
Yellow is yummy like lemon meringue pie.
Yellow is a butterfly,
A bumblebee flying high.

Author: Donna Wilson

Keep connected to check out future posts on “Colour”.  Check out my website at www.donnawilsonartist.com

Filed Under: Color, Colour, Expressive, Psychology of Colour Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,
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About Colour: Blue

October 15, 2015 By Leave a Comment

ABOUT COLOUR: BLUE

 

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About Blue

How does the colour blue affect you? Does it make you feel happy or sad? Many people believe that colours have a psychological association.

Blue is abundant in nature. Look up to the sky and you may find a pale blue of daytime or a rich dark blue-black of evening. Look at the ocean or the sea and you will find various colours of blue depending on the season, time of day and where in the world you are viewing it.   If you are viewing a calm body of water you will associate calmness and serenity with the colour blue. It is very soothing and enduring.  When the sky becomes stormy and the waters wild blue will hold feelings of energy, strength and spirit. If it is winter and you are in Canada you will associate blue with coldness.  Blue represents wisdom, infinity, depth, nobility, and spirituality. Blue is associated with the nervous system. Blue is shadowy.   In the Catholic religion the Virgin Mary wears blue, a blue and white gown and a blue veil often encountered in paintings of the Annunciation. Blue represents profound faith. A blue sun filled sky has an active and vitalizing effect while the mood of the blue moonlit sky is passive and elicits nostalgias.

Blue in Different Cultures

  • In Western Culture blue is embraced as the colour of heaven. It is used in corporate identity. Several banks use this colour as in their logo. It represents trust and authority. Blue is embraced as the colour of heaven. The police were blue. A dark blue suit is professional business attire. Blue can also be very casual as in blue jeans (worn around the world).
  • In Eastern and Asian Cultures blue corresponds to immortality, wealth and self-cultivation.  In China blue is a feminine colour unlike in Western cultures. In Korea dark blue is the colour of mourning.
  • In Iran blue is associated with death. It is the colour of heaven and spirituality.
  • In Indian culture blue is the colour of Krishna – a central figure in Hinduism and Hindu gods. The colour blue represents strength in a lot of indian sports teams.
  • In Japan children visually represent the sun as a big red circle.
  • If we research the meaning of colours and their importance to Native American Indians we would find that each colour holds a special sacred meaning and symbolism. This is according to the beliefs of the tribe and their purpose. The colour blue used for face paint would mean something different than that used for war paint. Blue symbolizes wisdom and confidence. It also represented the sky, lakes, rivers and water. The Navajo tribe consider the colour blue important as it represents one of four sacred mountains. In certain Native cultures, blue can represent cleansing waters, peace, or sometimes winter and renewal.

The Theory of Blue

  • Blue is a primary colour. No two colours can create blue. Blue is considered a cool colour as it is located on the cool half of the colour wheel along with green. Here blue is sandwiched between blue-green and blue-violet.
  • When blue is surrounded by yellow it has a very dark effect lacking in radiance.
  • When blue is surrounded by black, blue will gleam in bright, pure strength (from Itten, the elements of color).
  • When blue is surrounded by a dull orange, like burnt sienna or burnt umber, the blue gets excited and the dull orange/brown awakens.
  • Blue surround by red-orange becomes luminous.
  • MANGANESE: is a blue-green so is Cyan and Cerulean Blue. These colours contain some yellow making the blue greenish. They are considered cool.
  • ULTRAMARINE: is a blue containing some red. Therefore, this blue leans towards warm.

A Poem – About Blue

“What is Blue?”

Blue is the sky that envelopes me,
Blue is the water that is wild and free,
Blue lyrics share feelings that rest inside
Blue is a tradition with a bride.

Blue is the water I drink everyday.
Blue is not to be seen on my fish filet.
Blue is fruit delicious and sweet
Blue is powerful and on wallstreet.

Blue is one of three primary colours.
Blue can be mixed to make others.
Blue is seen in green and violet.
Blue cannot be seen in scarlet.

Author: Donna Wilson

Check out Donna’s website at www.donnawilsonartist.com

 

Filed Under: Color, Colour, Expressive, Psychology of Colour Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
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About Creativity

September 5, 2015 By Leave a Comment

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About Creativity

It is difficult to describe what creativity is.   Creativity has been explained as not a talent but it is a talent.   It is a talent we are all born with.  Some of us have lost this ability.  It is the ability to be in a state of playfulness, child-like if you will. It is the ability to temporarily set aside every day worries, stresses, anxieties and busyness to engage one’s playful and exploratory side.  It is about being mindful, staying in the present moment. The talent I refer to here is the talent of being able to engage the child within.  If you have lost this talent don’t fret as the lost can be found.

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Creative people can do just that.  They can go back and forth from dealing with the everyday adult responsibilities and to separating themselves.

Creative people realize that they need to cut off the outside world and it’s problems temporarily in order to delve into their creative zone.   This is easier done when we set ourselves time boundaries. We have a beginning and an end even if it is for a short time. We can always start again at a designated time.

When trying to get into the creative zone it is important not to get impatient or try to force it. We need to relax and let our minds full up with good positive self-talk. Creative people have learned to be patient and not to expect immediate gratification. They let ideas flow without judging.

Self-doubt and fear are creative killers.  They will paralyze and cripple creativity. As an art teacher I have witnessed this over and over again – students who are afraid to mix colours and apply their mixture to their surfaces. They are so afraid of making a mistake. Their biggest mistake is not being playful, not experimenting as a child would.   Have you ever watch children colour in their colouring books. They pick up crayons and go for it. They don’t worry if they colour their rabbit (the one in their colouring book) green and orange with a pink tail. They don’t care if they go outside the lines.  What has happened to us? I figure as we age we experience so many negative voices that smother our creative beings so many negative voices such as don’t do that, don’t do this, and that is wrong or that doesn’t look good. In order to get into our creative zone we have to guard ourselves from our critical selves. Creative people feed their minds with positive self-talk. They tell themselves that they can work through the process.  It is important here that I mention that creative people do experience self-doubt.   They know that to get into their creative state they need to clear their minds and push the negative stuff away.

Does any of this seem familiar?

 

Check out Donna’s website at www.donnawilsonartist.com

 

 

 

Filed Under: Art, Contemporary, Creativity, Expressive, Painting
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Creating Uninhibitedly

September 1, 2015 By Leave a Comment

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Creating Uninhibitedly

Welcome to this blog on creating uninhibitedly. I found some great artists’ quotes that are so apropos. See below:

When you can do the common things of life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world. – Anonymous
Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world. – Albert Einstein
Every child is an artist the problem is how to remain an artist once you grow up. – Pablo Picasso
 
Jean-Michel Basquiat’s paintings became famous and one of the reasons is because he was able to find the child within and express it so uninhibitedly.   It has been said that one of Basquiat’s collectors seems to value nothing more than a highly individualistic, expressive view of the world.

I am at a stage in my art career that I absolutely appreciate artists who can find and express their child within. Another way of saying this is to create uninhibitedly.

Stay Tune: In a future blog I will speak about ways to loosen up.

 

You can find out more about Donna’s work at www.donnawilsonartist.com

Filed Under: Art, Contemporary, Expressive, Painting
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