Colour has constantly been a cornerstone in painting, it’s pressence in art is long and very fertile, from the early cave paintings to today’s sophisticated laser lights. Understanding colour, and how colours react with each other, is an essential part of painting. Pet portraits for example, will necessitate the use of harmonious colours to produce the sort of result the customer will be looking for. Theories about colour and their significance have been around for virtually as long as the colours themselves even so, there are no hard and fast rules about colour psychology. Different societies think of colour in different ways. For instance, black in Western Countries is thought of as the colour of death, in China though, the colour of death is white. Nevertheless, we tend to look to the world around us for the meaning of colours. Here are some common held beliefs on the psychology of colour:

Oranges and yellows are commonly seen as ‘happy colours’, this is because they symbolize the colours of the sun, and the sun is known to have a uplifting effect on us.

Green represents the colour of nature, and because of this is seen as restful and can represent growth and life.

Brown is the colour of earth, so is seen of as reliable and reassuring.

Red is the colour of fire and heat, it represents aggressiveness, strength and danger. It’s an attention grabber, which is why it’s used on traffic lights to represent the command STOP.

Blue can be seen in the sky and seas, it has a reassuring effect and also represents distance. Blues are commonly used as background colours because of their ability to recede when placed next to hotter colours.

Of course this is quite a simplistic description, as many colours can have elements of another within them. Yellow can have a little blue in it, moving the colour towards the greens, this will then have some of the characteristics of blue. By contrast, yellow can also lean towards the red spectrum, and be more warmer in tone, so making it a more aggressive colour than pure yellow. An artist needs to be aware of this and how colours can be manipulated to be able to create an image that will touch us on all levels.