The colorists
BY AMERICA MEREDITH (CHEROKEE NATION)
Why do some paintings seem flat, unfinished or uninspired while others practically pulse with energy? Composition is fundamental. Technical skill plays a part. But color — understanding it and applying it boldly — is the key to a painting’s success. Color is one of the purest joys in painting, and painting conveys color better than any other medium — from subtle blends of almost transparent layers to the scintillating effects of pearlescent and interference paints.
Color speaks to us in culturally specific ways. Many tribes ascribe color symbolism to the directions, each with different traits. Color can also speak to us in primal, almost universal ways. Consider red’s close association with blood. My Cherokee culture has different words for bright red (gigage ’I, meaning “of blood”) and the dull red of dried blood or red earth (wodi).
Compared to other mammals, humans are highly dependent on eyesight. Our eyes have cones, or photoreceptors, specializing in blue, red, and green light. These are the primary colors of light, from which the secondary and tertiary colors are created.
With pigments (the coloring agents in paints), blue, red, and yellow have historically been named primary colors. Computer printers come with cyan, yellow, and magenta ink, perhaps a more practical group of primary colors. These three colors combine with black to create thousands of other colors. Natural mineral pigments such as red ocher and terre verte (green earth), and synthetic pigments such as alizarin crimson and quinacridone gold, all have their own quirks and characteristics. Artists divide colors into warm ones that jump off the canvas and cool ones that tend to recede into the background.