I’ve been thinking about colour a lot recently. Colour is vitally important to me. As I have synesthesia, I see colour all the time (even as I type this, all the letters are in colour – orange, white, grey, white, pale brown, red for the world colour by the way). I can’t imagine a world without colour. I use colour in my art a lot.
Colour is everywhere
I’ve been thinking recently about what would happen if I stopped using colour, or at least if I reduced the number and / or intensity of colours I could use. I have been wondering how difficult would it be to use only other elements available to me to create an artwork with impact: composition, subject matter, technical skill, contrast, light, dark and size. How would I cope if I were to forbid myself the use of colour?
The next project I am hoping to work on is about the First World War, specifically, objects and the First World War and how relevant they are to us today (and what ‘trace’ they leave of the time when they were extremely important to someone). I’ve been considering the prospect of using a lack of colour in this project as to me the First World War is about a lack of colour. I see the objects from the war as colourful but the environment they were in as colourless. How do the people who own the objects view them?
The colour of war
I asked my Facebook friends to name the first colour that comes to mind when they think of the First World War. These are the results so far. Red and brown are competing for the leader spot. I don’t see red, I only see brown, a dingy, dirty, muddy, shiny brown: the colour of clay.
The Pie Chart of colours