Understanding Color
The appreciation of color, the physics of color, the science and
aesthetics of color is essential to appreciating painting and
sculpture. "Color and form are one." I first heard this from Antonio
Salemme 1892-1995, my art teacher. But, the principle is as old and new
as the universe itself. It goes beyond the arts, yet the arts are
founded on this reality. A painter and one who appreciates painting
should grasp this principle firmly. A brief meditation focusing on this
should be sufficient.
All you see is color. Just like all you
hear is sound. In our culture specifically sight and color is
conditioned intimately with the 'form' the color takes. Unlike with
sound, which is much more of a direct experience not associated with
concepts. We don't have to think about music so much...we listen to the
music and like it or not. This liking or not can be associated to
various concepts, like what is current and contemporary, but regardless
of those 'stylistic' preferences we hear it and are moved by it.
Appreciating
a painting can be just as much a direct experience as listening to
music. Is just as much music. Generally however, unless something is
conceptually speaking 'abstract' (i like to say, "the abstract nature of
reality is the source of beauty."), the viewer gets hung up on the
conceptual associations brought up by the sub-conscious mind, or,
immediately goes into a seemingly conscious and intellectual analysis
of the work, which might be quite reasonable and ends up echoing the
meaning of the work, but ultimately is more reflective of the 'expert on
honey, never having tasted honey'.
So the artist, looking at the
world or 'motif', sees the world in terms of color and color
relationships. There are so many psychological (psyche means soul, by
the way...) threads connected to the art, moving out from this
particular event, the artist looking at the world, that it
would be too much to try to follow each one in this particular writing.
But ultimately, out of the relationship to the 'world or 'motif' which
can be either so called 'abstract' or so called 'representational', the
artist makes music based on the color vibrations chosen based on that
relationship.
The truth is, something so called 'abstract' is very
real and exactly what you see. Our concepts, subconscious or not fuel
the mind's associative activity. This secondary event is not the truth
of the work, but true of the reflective mind process. And just so,
something so called 'representational', can be very so called 'abstract'
when seen from the direct experience of color perspective and color
harmony, the music of the work. I mean really, apples and flowers by
Van Gogh or Gauguin or Cezanne are about color harmonies and brush
work. They are about the self expression of these artists' in terms of
the medium, much more than they are about apples and flowers
specifically. They are all rendered beautifully according to the
artist's personality. This is one of those threads I mentioned
earlier...but finally with their work as an example, you have exquisite
music as color harmonies and you have the motif as well. Balance.
There is also in this balance, a balance of reason and intellect as well
as feeling and intuition. Here reason and intellect is guided by the
intuition.
Closing for now, here, receptivity is the first
approach. Receptivity and suspending judgement. This will allow the
judgement to arise from 'within' ultimately. This receptivity will
finally offer you a direct and intuitive experience of the meaning and
'music' of the work. It takes some practice and attention. Key to this
is the understanding of color and its ability to move you as music. The
palette and brush of an artist having as many potential tonalities as
any musical instrument heard by the ear, and just as much space for the
improvisation, self exploration and expression of the artist.
copyright(c)william deraymond 2015
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