Let’s talk about color.
Most of us have been introduced to the color wheel somewhere along the way. And I still remember the old ROY G. BIV to remember the colors of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet), but how does color play a role in defining our voice and our style?
Different colors have different associations. Red is considered a powerful color and often is associated with blood, fire, passion, desire, leadership, courage, rage, radiance or determination.
Blue has its own set of associations, as does yellow, orange, etc. None of this is that radical. But my friend, and fellow artist LynnAnn Agnew, and I have been talking recently about the impact of color on our work. LynnAnn is a color design strategist and has been studying color for years. She knows her stuff.
So, ask yourself, why are you drawn to certain colors over other colors? What colors evoke a response in you? What are the color memories you have?
Listen carefully when I say, this isn’t about your favorite color. It’s not about what color looks best against your skin tone, or hair color. Or how you love the bright vibrant colors of the Scarlet Macaw. It’s about deep inside, what are the feelings, moods, or emotions that color brings up for you?
Ask yourself, do you have any color memories associated with a particular color?
A fellow colleague recently revealed that she made a discovery in regard to color. Yellow is a very happy color for her. When she was little she had a huge love of lemons. She would walk to the neighborhood store and buy a lemon every day. Sometimes she had to scrounge around for bottles to sell in order to have 10 cents to buy one. Then she would go home and sit on the porch, peel her lemon, add salt, and proceed to eat it like she would eat a peeled orange. It was her ritual and it was heavenly.
Looking back at her work, often yellow shows up. That color memory guides her choices when creating. I even suggested to her that she goes and gets herself a lemon, salt it, and as she eats it to close her eyes and let her mind connect even deeper to the color to see what other images come up for her.
If you’ve taken my online course, you’ve heard me say it a hundred times, viewers connect to our work through the feelings, moods, and emotions we evoke in them. No doubt that every viewer looks at our work with a different perspective, but we have so much better chance of connecting to them if we create work that is authentic within ourselves and from our heart.
Go beyond the color wheel and your knowledge of primary colors, secondary colors and tertiary colors.
Know and use the colors that have become part of who you are. Use color as a tool to communicate your art. Let it become part of your artistic vision and your voice.
Let me hear from you. What are your color memories? How does color play a role in your creative voice? I’d love for you to join the conversation.
Be well….be creative,
Color is very important to me…I am always near, close or on the water. Blues and greens play an important part in my work. Our conversations in our Saturday Creative Circle, had me get a color wheel. It makes it easier for me to visualize, blend and create the encaustic wax colors I see in my mind…
Fabulous…..yes, it’s amazing how color is actually a part of us and we don’t even realize it. I totally see how the blues + greens play an important part in your work!
Clare, I’ve been a photog for 50 years, so the RGB color wheel is ingrained in my brain. I use it when I’m styling a session and when I’m making suggestions for tones in clothing to clients. But, maybe I shouldn’t? Should I be using the the physical color wheel of RYG for these visual uses, and reserve the RGB color relationships for the digital world?
Thinking back to the many hundreds of hand colored images I produced back then- should have used RYB?
Al, I have no idea…..I’m more interested in the emotional effect that color has on the artist and how it can be used in our artistic vision. What do certain colors mean to you? What colors are you drawn to? and why?
In my opinion, those are the questions you should be asking.
“Know and use the colors that have become part of who you are. Use color as a tool to communicate your art. Let it become part of your artistic vision and your voice.”
I always think that color is like music. Both go straight past our verbal brains and land directly as feeling. The feeling can be from memory but sometimes I would suggest the feelings are spiritual or mystical, connecting us to the whole of life.
There are two colors in my oil stick box I practically salivate over, celadon green and olive yellow. The first is the color of sage, predominant in Eastern Oregon where I grew up and in New Mexico where I live now. The olive yellow is the color of lichen on boulders and boat dock wood and the cedar waxwing.
I used to live among the Navajos and came to believe as they did that turquoise has healing strength. I only have to think of it to feel that strength.
In my photography I often use sepia or Polaroid green filters to suggest memory. These colors work so well with the yellow wax I like to use, like a yellowed photograph you find in an old box.
I could think about color all day. Thanks Clare for giving me something to think about during these long days.
Thanks Carol. Everything you said is exactly right. And your images show it perfectly.
My mother’s favorite color was turquoise, any shade of turquoise. When I started doing art I noticed that I gravitated to using turquoise in almost every piece no matter the amount. It might be just a dab of brush stroke, but it could also be my major color. It evokes a strong comforting emotion to me plus some very vivid memories.
What a lovely memory and special to add it to your pieces:)