We often associate colours with emotions. Colours are used to express ourselves and others, we often hear people say ” I’m feeling blue” or “it’s a blue Monday”. Colours are used to express our thoughts, physical sensations and perceptions. Being aware of the colours you use to express these emotions and feelings during art making may help you understand how colour reflects your emotional self. The significance of colour can be illustrated by the high value people place on their country’s flag to represent them.
There is no right or wrong way to express emotion through art or colours. We all have our own personal visual language for expressing our emotional selves. Colours have symbolic values that are very individual and significant to a particular person. These can be explored to gain insight and understanding.
Colour resonates with our environment such as the elements, the seasons and the planets. From the moment that you are born you are surrounded by colours. Everything you touch, eat ,drink, all that you see. Colour helps you determine when fruits are ripe. Your skin can change colour with shyness, sunburn or cold.
Colour is important. It is interwoven into our lives, it ‘colours’ our language, our thoughts and our feelings. We don’t only associate colour with objects or with emotions, colour can actually affect us physically, on a cellular level. Colour has real energy, it is our way of recognizing the energy of light from the sun and the stars and how it is interacting with objects, how it is being absorbed or reflected from these objects.
Without light there is no life and no growth. From light comes all the colours each with its unique impact on all living systems. As light is energy so is colour. Colour is the brain’s way of recognizing the different energies or vibrations of light. Ancient cultures worshiped the sun, source of all light and colour. They were aware of its healing powers. The therapeutic use of colour can be traced back to the Egyptians. In 1878 Edwin Babbit published “The Principles of Light and Colour” and he prescribed colours for a range of conditions with huge success. Colour is a healing energy that can be used by everyone in abundance. It can be used to improve well-being.