ABOUT COLOUR: YELLOW

DSC02835wSF

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

About Colour: Red

ABOUT COLOUR: RED

About Red

Red is one of the three primary colours. It is located on the warm half of the colour wheel. It’s one of the colours that we see when we look at a flame. A fire truck is red. What a coincidence! Red excites the emotions which motivates us to take action. It is stimulating and lively. Red is associated with passion, seduction and lust. Is it any coincidence that the retail fashion stores fill their shops with red lingerie prior to Valentines Day or that Cupid is red? Red is also associated with blood, danger, anger, aggression and war. When a person is angry their face appears reddish when it flushes with blood. Red is also associated with evil. The devil is usually represented with red skin. Red is the universal colour for stop and danger. Red triggers alertness and captures our attention. This is why we have red traffic lights, stop signs and red brake lights. Red also symbolizes strength, speed, determination, courage and socialism. Red and pink (red plus white) is associated with “causes” like the awareness of breast cancer, AIDS and heart disease.

Red in Different Cultures

In Eastern culture such as China red corresponds to good fortune and joy. Red is found everywhere during Chinese New Year.
In Indian culture it symbolizes purity, fertility, love, beauty, wealth, opulence and power.
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 red used for face paint would mean something different than that used for war paint.
In South Africa red is the colour of mourning.

The Theory of Red

SCARLET: contains yellow making it a red-orange. It is considered a warm red as opposed to a cool red which has blue in it. On the colour wheel it is considered an intermediate colour or tertiary color. It is one of six of the tertiaries located on the colour wheel sandwiched between Orange and Red.
CRIMSON: contains blue making it a bluish red. It is also referred to as a cool red. Even through reds are warm there colour temperature is relative to each other.

There are many variations of red depending on how warm or how cool the red is and what pigments were used to create the colour. There are few true reds meaning neither leaning towards warm or cool. Having said this don’t get confused because red is located on the warm side of the colour wheel.

Things Red

Fruit: Cherries, strawberries, red delicious apples, cranberries, red pears, red grapes, pomegranates, rhubarb
Vegetables: Red peppers, tomatoes, chili peppers, ketchup, beets, red potatoes, radishes
Candy: Red smarties candy, candy canes, jelly beans
Gems: Ruby, garnet, topaz, fire opal
Flowers: Roses, tulips, geraniums, petunias, impatiens, poppies
Animals: Red fox, red tabby cat, Irish Setter, Scottish deerhound, red crested cardinal, red panda, red squirrel, red kangaroo
Other: fire, flame, nail polish, lipstick, lips, flags, cars, London telephone booth, London buses, Rudolph’s red nose, Santa Claus, red hair, red crayon, paint, hearts, valentine cards, cupid, Valentine’s Day, lingerie, ladybugs, tongue, ribbon, fire extinguisher, traffic lights, ambulance, leaves, wine, stop signs, fire trucks, fire hydrants, the Boston Red Sox, red sea stars, red moon, red velvet, and a red brick house

Stay Connected: In future blogs I will post more ABOUT COLOUR! Check out Donna’s website at www.donnawilsonartist.com