About Colour

To understand colour, it's helpful to unlearn these ideas:
There are only 3 primary colours,
Red, yellow, blue = best / most important primaries,
The 3 primaries cannot be mixed by other colours,
The 3 primaries can mix all other colours.

Those ideas are not true.

When observing the paintings on this site, take in the colours you are seeing and acknowledge that words associated with these colours have loaded meanings and cultural associations.

Colours are born in our minds as an interpretation of light.

Visible Light Spectrum

The range of colours between violet and red are not visible wavelengths. They are created when our brains average long and short wavelengths and medium wavelengths are not present.

Mixing colours with beams of light

Mixing colours with paint / pigment

Primary colours can be defined as an initial set of colours used to mix a wide range of other colours. Multiple sets of primary colours exist.

Colours like red and blue can be mixed with other colours.

We name colours with the terms “light” when made lighter and “dark” when made darker. It makes sense to be consistent with pink and red.

PINK
+
WHITE
=
LIGHT PINK

PINK
+
YELLOW
=
RED

RED
+
WHITE
=
LIGHT RED

There are many ways to mix neutrals.
One misconception is that red and blue mix violet, but pink gives a better violet.

four stacked bar gradients showing different blues / cyans and reds / oranges

Colour and Temperature

Our minds have made links between the visible light waves we perceive and the temperatures we feel. Our perception and association of warm and cool with reds and blues is psychological. For example, "cool" light has a higher measured temperature (K) than "warm" light.

Using the terms "warm" and "cool" when referring to colours is arbitrary.

Our interpretation of light is relative.