Robert Genn's Twice Weekly Letter
Insight and inspiration for your artistic career.

Dear Artist,

With a little help from the animals, vegetables and minerals, one of humanity's persistent habits is to colour ourselves with pigments and coloured objects. There are five main functions:

To be seen or noticed
To give info of rank or status
To warn of danger
To remain unseen or to confuse
To be admired or desired

It seems that colour itself is loaded with potential power. Interestingly, it's the colours black and white (dark and light) that have the most differentiating variations in the vocabularies of the world's languages. Also, for some reason, women use colour as a verbal signifier almost twice as often as men. Men tend to use size.

Next to black and white, red is the most popular colour. It's also the last colour to go and the first to return in near-death experiences. Associations with blood, soil and sensual stimulation account for some of red's historic popularity. Red roses arrive with Valentine's red heart.

Psychologist Nick Humphrey notes that in the case of "flame," both safety and danger are signified. It's the ambiguity that's important. Red depends on context. Apparently, red asks us to gather more information.

It's safe to say that with the advent of modern dyes and pigments, there is more colour around these days. Bright colours were formerly rare and had to be coaxed from sources like bird feathers, cochineal beetles or cow's urine. Do we now suffer from colour overkill? Is colour losing her winning ways? Incredibly, the British Army was formerly tailored in red; the appearance of power and threat having more value than ease of shot. Of course, red still signifies danger (stop signs are generally red) and is present on almost every national flag.

From a painter's point of view, a "red surprise" is most effective for bringing focus and heightened interest to many works. "Warm is better than cool," say some of the colour pundits. Red will remain forever hot.

Best regards,

Robert

PS: "Colour is a power which directly influences the soul." (Wassily Kandinsky)

Esoterica: Last evening, painting in the garden of our rented Hawaii home, I was victimized by the Purkinje Effect. In 1819, a Czech physiologist, Jan Purkinje, noticed a curious phenomenon as he watched the flowers in his garden. He realized that the relative brightness of differently coloured flowers changed as the light faded. Red flowers became almost black, while green leaves remained green and bright. At low light levels, the human eye becomes more sensitive to blue and green light than to red light. It's not just about red, but how we see red.

If you would like to read more information related to the above letter please visit the Seeing red clickback


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