Color

I’ve been thinking a lot about color this week. Normally, I work from photographs (my own, of course!), but right now I have a Celtic knot work piece on my drawing board. When I work with photos in a realistic style, the colors are pretty much set—I only have to interpret them. Granted, once in a while I take a little ‘artistic license’ and veer off on my own a bit. But this time, there are no photos; this piece is purely from my imagination, so it’s up to me to choose the color palette. I’ve found this to be one of the most difficult challenges I’ve faced in a while. Why? Why should it be so difficult to set a color scheme? For me, I think it’s because I love color! There are too many choices, so decisions had me paralyzed for a few days! LOL! I finally chose a palette for this piece, but since I had such a tough time with it, this will most likely end up as a series instead of only one!


If one says "Red" – the name of color – and there are fifty people listening, it can be expected that there will be fifty reds in their minds. And one can be sure that all these reds will be very different. (Josef Albers)


That is a really interesting quote to me—I happen to think that it is ‘spot on’! Just like everything else in life, it all boils down to experience. Colors evoke memories in us. Some have good connotations to us, some bad, and some neutral. How do those colors make us feel about a piece of art? How often are we drawn to a specific piece not because of excellence of execution or interesting subject matter, but purely by the colors?


I’m going to try an experiment this week: I’m going to ask a few people to head to the paint dept. of their favorite store and pick out one red, one blue, and one yellow paint chip. I’m going to collect them all, compare them and then ask everyone why they chose the particular shade that they chose.


I’d love to hear your thoughts on color. Please feel free to comment!