Written By Mary Nunn, Strathroy Working Artist, Educator & Mentor
A primary colour, the compliment is Violet, a mixture of blue and red. Yellow is the lightest in value; lemon yellow is the primary colour.
My two teenagers at the time, both chose to paint their bedrooms yellow. Big mistake, yellow can have a negative effect on one’s physical well being; a baby will cry more in a yellow room. We tend to think of yellow as a sunny lively colour.
Yellow may represent to you: fall leaves, sandy beaches, heavy equipment, danger, school buses, street signs, it can be a cautionary colour. It has a negative connotation too, ‘yellow belly’ (weasel or traitor) yellow skin can be an indication of health issues. One of the most memorable paintings in the world is Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” of 1889.
Yellow is a highly visible colour, the fire department in Ottawa, experimented with yellow fire trucks, didn’t work and were later repainted. It can be the most attention getting colour: the Sun, safety vests, chip bags, sunflowers and many other flowers, daffodils are a symbol of hope for the cancer society. I have seen two people with actual yellow eyes.
Flags, Ukraine and Brazil stand out, but many Countries have touches of yellow in their flags.
In art, the colour yellow can move through an arc of very cool lemon yellow to an almost orange Indian yellow (originally made from horse urine). On the spectrum of colours on the colour wheel, it is split into warm and cool colours, cools are green to blue, the warm side is orange to darker red. Yellow green and red violet are an exception, they don’t have a temperature attributed to them.
‘The gold standard,’ the golden ratio or spiral, artist use this in design prep. There is a golden triangle in India, a tourist route; golden threads in Sacred clothing, golden mask in ancient burials; golden handshakes, gold wedding jewellery and medals and stars.
Let us not miss the gold metal or gold tones that would fall into this category. New paint colours have been developed in recent years the AZOs’ which will replace the older use of Cadmiums.
Lastly, Amber is a form of yellow; it is used in jewellery, in early times it was used as a medication and in funeral rituals. A room in St. Catherine’s palace in Russia was paneled in Amber, gold and mirrors, later dismantled during WWII.
