Why does color matter? (Let me count the ways…)
We are a visual species and we live in very visual cultures. Everywhere we go or look there are visuals vying for our attention. Color is one of the first things we notice about a town, a home, and a person. We notice the aesthetic. The colors of the buildings, the landscape, and the colors a person wears. The colors of their eyes. Color is a huge component in first impressions, and I don't think I have to say how important those are.
When I was living on a sailboat, we visited many different towns, and a lot of them are catalogued in my brain by the colors. There was one Bahamian town in particular that will remain unnamed (although I think I may have written a blog waaaay back about this whole experience). In this town, something felt off immediately. We docked and I set off for the local clinic as I was very pregnant and very sick. Walking through this town, I just couldn’t shake this weird feeling. It sounds crazy but the colors of the yards and the houses and everything were just OFF. Something was weird, very weird. I later found out that several major universities had conducted extensive sociological studies here, thanks to it being the largest remained highly inbred community in the world. So there ya go. The colors knew! Ok back to the point-
We know that color only exists thanks to light. In the darkness, it isn’t as though we just can’t make out the colors…they literally are not there without the light. Light gives color, and light gives life. Without light there is no color and there is no life. This is why a certain object can look different at different times of the day, and in different parts of the world.
Colors are also connected to the energetic building blocks of life- the chakras. There are actually 114 total chakras, but 7 that we focus on most intently in energetic practices. These follow the colors of the rainbow, and I do feel in this day and age the need to remind us all that the rainbow is not a social construct. It is the actual spectrum of light. This same rainbow that shows up in the sky when conditions are right, is right there in your body as well. These chakras can be seen by some people and have been documented with special aura cameras. Each one is connected to a different part of your body and a different type of energy.
Colors can affect our moods and make us feel certain ways. Orange, connected to the sacral chakra, is known to excite us and stimulate creativity. Red is the root chakra, connected to sexuality and also security. Our connection to mother earth. The root. Blood. Clay. The building blocks of life. Green is the heart chakra, connected to abundance and growth and love. And so on. In different traditions the colors can vary slightly in their connections and meanings but they all follow the same general script.
In Feng Shui for example, red is more connected to fire than to earth. But the fire feeds the earth. Blue and black are connected to the water element in feng shui, and the throat chakra–both ruling our expression, our emotions, our ability to flow and let our truth be known. Feng shui shows us what a profound effect colors can have on the energy of a home. I knew this as an artist, but it has been through studying feng shui that this became really clear. The art we choose for our home has a real effect on the emotions of the people living inside. But more important than the art is the color of your walls, your front door, and your exterior.
In order to know what colors are beneficial for your home, you have to know what the ruling element of this home is–so there is no master list of good and bad. This is unique to each house. Beyond the measurable components of color, there is an ephemeral quality that color lends to every painting and home. To every person.
We can be as scientific or as intuitive as we want in our color choices. It is my opinion that, depending on our personal predilection, we arrive at the same quality of work no matter which route we take. Scientific precision in color selection and mixing is like taking the carefully plotted course on the map, marked with precise coordinates. The intuitive color mixing and selection route gets us to the same place, but we may wade through a river and hike through a forest to get there. It is up to you as an artist to decide which way you want to travel through this painting and palette. If carefully planning out every hue feels restraining (literally makes me feel short of breath) then you aren't meant to work that way! Likewise, if you feel paralyzed by the thought of just whimsically choosing a palette, then you aren't meant to work that way. And that is the beauty of being an artist, you get to make your own rules.
In the color theory course we will go over both options. I will show you how to evaluate light and hue and tone and value. We will talk about the feelings of different colors, the way to market your paintings based on the color palette, and more.
*If you would like to be on the waitlist for this course and get 20% off when it launches, click here. This course is going to be super affordable (probably in the $40-$60 range). I just want it to be accessible and easy for everyone, especially the self-taught artists who feel like they missed out on color theory courses in art school (spoiler alert–you didn't miss out!) If you choose to purchase the full oil painting course, you can also use your 20% off on that, and it will include the color theory! Happy painting :)