Reflective Essay: The Symbolism Of Color

Colour is the by product of the spectrum of light, as it is reflected or absorbed, as received by the human eye and processed by the human brain. Colours affect us psychologically regardless of any symbolism. The psychological effect of one colour can be different from its symbolical significance. Mystics have long held we emanate a coloured glow, or an aura, which is thought to affect the state of a person’s health and spirituality. The actual emotional effect of a specific colour in an artwork depends partly on its surrounding and partly on the ideas expressed by the work as the whole. Artists use colour to express an emotional rather than a visual truth.
Art is not necessarily a joyful activity. A painting or a poem is not great because it is full of happiness; nor is it bad because it happens to convey a feeling of tragedy. This is the same as

(e) Cool Colours: Cool colours suggest coolness and seem to recede from a viewer and fall back, e.g., blue and green are colours of sky, water and trees.
(f) Complementary: Complementary Colours are those two colours opposite one another on the colour wheel, e.g., blue and orange, yellow and purple, red and green. When a pair of high intensity complements they are placed side by side, they seem to vibrate and draw attention to the element.
(g) Intensity: Intensity is the brightness or dullness of a colour. A pure hue is a high intensity colour. A dulled hue, a colour mixed with its complements is called a low-intensity colour.
(h) Triad: A colour triad is composed of three colours spaced an equal distance apart on the colour wheel. The contrast between triad colours is not as strong as that between complements.
(i) Primary Colours: Primary colours are red, yellow and blue.
(j) Secondary Colours: By mixing two primary colours, we can create a secondary