Colour Choreography

January 2023 Reflections ❊ Subscribe

“Every perception of colour is an illusion; we do not see colours as they really are. In our perception they alter one another.”

— Josef Albers

Colour has fascinated me for years. In 2018-2019 while studying oil painting under Kate Hopkins, I became obsessed with how to make a colour feel saturated. I wanted to know how to make something feel ‘bright.’

To make something feel bright, you must surround it by dull or desaturated colours. Colour is dynamic and our perception of it changes depending on its surroundings.

It’s like a form of choreography. You can intensify the impact of a colour by dulling down the colours around it. This applies to interior spaces—by mindfully considering the space around an object you can increase (or decrease) its visual impact.

Experiment with Colour.

Here are a few ideas:

• Try moving objects around on your shelves and play with pairing similar coloured objects (a monotone palette) with a single complimentary colour or a strong solid neutral (e.g., black).

• Consider the tonal differences between objects and make sure at least one object has a strong tonal contrast. The easiest way to understand tonal differences in colour is to imagine photographing the objects in greyscale. The object that would appear the darkest has the heaviest tonal ‘weight’. Pair it with something lighter to create a tonal contrast.

• You can create colour tension by placing colours together that are not considered complimentary (e.g., red, and pink).

• Pair together grey, muddy colours with something very vibrant like fuchsia.

Like brushstrokes on a painting and instruments in an orchestra, objects work in dialogue with one another. You can completely transform the feeling in a space by rearranging your existing objects.

Until next time,
Wren.