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The Psychology of Colour – Red / Vermilion

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Summer

Red exudes warmth and, like no other colour, radiates a strong and powerful energy that motivates us to take action.  It is used effectively as a warning colour on road signs and as the ‘stop’ light for traffic lights. Red lights also show car users when the driver in front is braking.

In medieval times, artists would use a mixture of sulphur and mercury, heated to very high temperatures, to produce red pigment.  Known as vermilion, red was also produced from cinnabar.

Cinnabar ore contains mercury.  The ore is toxic. Many miners lost their lives whilst mining the mineral as, when it is ingested, inhaled or comes in contact with the skin, it can lead to mercury poisoning.  This toxicity can lead to neurological damage, kidney problems and respiratory issues.

From the end of the 19th century a less harmful alternative to cinnabar was found, cadmium.  Today vermillion is made from modern, harmless and stable pigments.

Love

Associations with the colour red include physical energy, passion, attention, stimulation and excitement.

In the UK, pillar boxes are painted red and the original telephone booths were coloured red.

Red is also the colour of blood and has historical connotations with sacrifice, danger and courage.

In Roman times, on the battlefield, Roman soldiers wore a red tunic under their armour to represent blood and strength.  The compact line of the Roman infantry, dressed in red, had a psychological impact on the enemy, which perceived it as strong and valiant.

It is also the colour of war, Mars.  Roman soldiers and gladiators were both adorned in red.

In some accounts, Caesar’s face was painted red.  This was perhaps as an imitation of Rome’s highest and most powerful god, Jupiter.

China also has a love of the colour red.  Throughout the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) red was used as a signal of strength and power. The dynasty was founded in the south and the ruling family’s name, Zhu, means vermillion.

Red is the luckiest colour in Chinese culture.  It symbolises joy, vitality, celebration, success and good fortune.  It is used for weddings and for the Chinese New Year.

The colour red also has a capacity for arousal.  Red stimulates the physical and adrenalin.  It raises blood pressure, the heart and respiration.  The colour also evokes strong emotions and is considered intense and even angry.

Red is believed to sensitise the taste buds and sense of smell, thereby increasing appetite.  All this occurs because the heart rate instinctively quickens, which causes the release of adrenalin in the blood stream raising blood pressure and stimulating the nerves.

The colour red, in Hindu scriptures, activates the circulation system and benefits the five senses.   It is used to treat colds, paralysis, anaemia, ailments of the blood stream and lungs.

Goldstein asserts “under the influence of red light, time is likely to be overestimated”.

From a ‘brand’ perspective, it is easy to recall when red is used.

The adverts that depict father Christmas delivering CocaCola are memorable, as are the Virgin Atlantic reels encouraging individuality.

Next week in the Psychology of Colour series – YELLOW

 

New Blog Series -The Psychology of Colour

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BLUE

Blue light exposure can positively affect cognitive performance…

Bluebell Wood, Suffolk – Hugo Richardson

The Source of Blue

The origin of blue for use in art colouring came from the Ancient Egyptians, who created the first blue pigment as far back as 2,200BC.  Sand, ground limestone and copper-containing minerals, like malachite or azurite, were heated to high temperatures for blue in art.

However, alternative thoughts believe that the richest blue on earth is called ultra-marine, which means ‘over-seas’.  In Britain’s case, this means the Mediterranean Sea, literally the sea at the ‘middle of the earth’.

Ultramarine blue can be made from lapis lazuli. Lapis lazuli is normally a mixture of three minerals including lazurite (very complex blue mineral), calcite (calcium carbonate, which is white) and pyrite (an iron sulphide that is white gold in colour).

The finest lapis lazuli comes from Badakhshan.  The mines, on the precipitous walls of the upper Kokeha Valley, in North Eastern Afghanistan, have been worked for more than 6,000 years.

Lapis lazuli was not just used in paint, but four and a half thousand years ago, a pair of lapis-and-gold goats were placed in the royal cemetery of Ur in Mesopotamia. It was used on the Afghan Buddhas of Bamiyan, dated to the 6th century AD.

Around three-and-a-half thousand years ago, lapis was used to adorn the golden funeral masks and jewellery of the pharaohs.

Blue in a Business Context

Blue sky thinking is the thought process of limitless creation beyond conventional thought, limitless like the blue sky.  This type of thought requires a group of people that need to think outside the box in a ‘brainstorming way’.  The activity should not be constrained by the limits of practicality.

Exposure to blue light can positively affect cognitive performance, alertness and reaction time.  The colour blue is often used to decorate offices, because research has shown that people are more productive in blue rooms.

Blue calls to mind feelings of calmness and serenity.  It is described as peaceful and tranquil, secure and orderly.

Blue very well may improve sports that are reliant upon team work and decision-making.

Colour-chakra theory from Hindu scriptures adds: blue raises metabolism; is used to stabilise the heart, muscles and bloodstream; used to treat burns (methylene blue), skin diseases, glaucoma, measles and chicken pox and throat problems.

However, blue light, by raising metabolism, can decrease sleep quality and duration.

The River Stour, Early Saturday Morning – Hugo Richardson

Blue is calming, relaxing and healing but not as sedentary as indigo.

Jeanne Kopacz is an interior design professional and author of  ‘Colour in Three Dimensional Design’.  Kopacz suggests “the sight of the colour blue causes the body to release hormones when it is surveyed, particularly a strong blue sky.  Many believe blue can lower blood pressure, slow the pulse rate and decrease body temperature”.

Positive Associations (source, Envato Pty. Ltd.):

Trust, Loyalty, Dependability, Logic, Serenity, Security

Negative Associations:

Coldness, Aloofness, Emotionless, Unfriendliness, Uncaring, Unappetising

NEXT WEEK,  The Psychology of Colour: RED

Calm Morning Mist, Image Captured During Covid – Hugo Richardson

Turner and the Elements – Earth

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Castle Ruins and Small Village Landscape, Joseph Mallord William Turner, c. 1798-1799

Joseph Turners work can be viewed at:

https://www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-britain/display/jmw-turner

Mountains, Crags and Rocks

“Roughness forms the most essential part of difference between the beautiful and the picturesque”  William Gilpin (1724-1804).

In the second half of the eighteenth century, the English clergyman and author William Gilpin formulated an aesthetic theory of landscape.  This was published in 1786.

Opinions of landscape design formed a “picturesque” debate.  Lancelot “Capability” Brown and Humphrey Repton represented one side of the spectrum.  They were in contrast to the ideas of William Gilpin and Richard Payne.

Landscapes by Brown and Repton are characterised by undulating expanses of grass and hills, broken up by clumps of trees and serpentine lakes to impress serenity.  This style required dramatic landscape alterations; an endless number of trees would be cut down, and an entire village would be relocated in the name of “improvement.”

Gilpin preferred rugged and moody landscapes that could also invoke the sublime. Gilpin observed that the appearance of the landscape changed depending upon the clouds and the quality of light.

Turner’s interest in the element of earth must be looked at in the context of contemporary developments in landscape painting in Britain.

Gilpin published his observations and encouraged British landscape artists to pursue atmospheric phenomena. He illustrated this contention in watercolours that brought the landscape to life through the use of chiaroscuro.

The fine art term chiaroscuro comes from the Italian words that roughly translate to light and dark.  Chiaroscuro technique is employed in the visual arts to represent light and shadow as they define three-dimensional objects.  Turner followed Gilpin’s example in exploring British landscapes.

Here are some ‘monochromatic’ samples of the chiaroscuro method:

Mountain Peaks, Alexander Cozens, c. 1785

Alexander Cozens work can be viewed at https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/alexander-cozens-118 

Castle End Farm, Luscombe, Richard William Conway-Jones, 1988

Richard is a contemporary artist, his work can be viewed at:

http://www.conway-jones.co.uk

From a personal perspective, my approach to photography has been, as much as is possible, that of an artist.

I feel drawn to the mountains of Wales, Scotland and the Lake District. This Scottish landscape photo below shows trees growing where God and nature has decided. The picturesque stark mountains that reach the sky are easier to capture when the light is less intense.  I hope you can appreciate Gilpin’s ‘atmospheric phenomena’.

Blair Atholl, Looking towards Killiecrankie circa 1801 Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775-1851 Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/D04179

Glen Nevis, Hugo Richardson, November 2023

Scottish Landscape, Hugo Richardson, November 2023

I like mountains as a subject for photographic landscapes.  I have experimented with light and shadow options and seasonal light intensity variations can have an effect on the mood of the image.

Clearly, where the outline of mountains meet the sky, having a ‘chiaroscuro’ methodology in the mind of the photographer, can help.

Through the value gradation of colour and the analytical division of bright and shadowed shapes, the chiaroscuro artists create the illusions of three-dimensional forms and the light coming from a specific source, often achieving dramatic effects.

By 1801, the twenty-six-year-old Turner was already an Associate of the Royal Academy.

Turner was at the centre of intellectual life.  The Academy was at the right-hand side of Somerset House, next to the Society of Antiquaries.

Sir Francis Chantrey (sculptor),  Sir John Soane (architect)  and Sir Thomas Lawrence (painter) were fellows of the Royal Society.

The Academicians attended lectures on the most complex discoveries in science and it was suggested Turner was an invited guest.

Sir William Herschel (1738-1822) presented papers on the nature of the sun.

Herschel had looked at the sun with a giant telescope in Slough.  He found a range of particular features that he called “openings, shallows, ridges, nodules, corrugations, indentations and pores”.

He filtered the harmful magnified light through a tray of watered ink.

Turner too looked at the sun and purposefully gives a dab of the brush bristles, raising nodules of paint; a wipe of the flat areas of paint making parallel ridges and a smoothed area.

Norham Castle, Sunrise c.1845 Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775-1851 Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/N01981

Capturing photographic images of the sun is best left till the sun is rising or setting. I took this photo in 2016. When the image was downloaded from the ‘SIM card’, a spotlight from the sky appeared to light up a small area of the ground. This image has not been adjusted, to this day I do not know how the photo is possible!

Landscape Sunset Near Pewsey, Hugo Richardson, November 2016

J M W Turner and the Elements – Fire

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Prometheus gave humanity fire

A Lime Kiln by Moonlight, J M W Turner, 1799

I am delighted to present the third of the ‘blogs’ relating to JMW Turner and my attempts to follow his methodology with my photographic work. Turner’s approach to art involved drama, action and bright light.

For example, we already know that his marine paintings included stormy events, ports defying the sea and ships capsizing.

The English Romantic painter, was lucky in a number of ways.  Britain was enjoying the developments associated with British invention.  Also, we had success in remaining independent from invasion attempts, following our success at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.

We were also making significant strides with science.  For example, Humphry Davy, born in Cornwall, invented the Davy Lamp. This ‘arc lamp’ was one of the first electric lights. Bessemer was patenting a process for smelting steel. George and his son Robert’s company, Robert Stephenson and Company, manufactured and released the Locomotion No. 1, which was the first steam locomotive to carry passengers on a public rail line in 1825.

Light Bulb, photo taken by Hugo Richardson

Abstract Light Art, photograph by Hugo Richardson

Fire was being used industrially for manufacturing and for generating steam. One of Turner’s most famous paintings, depicting the move from sail to steam with marine transportation, shows how innovation was having an impact:

The Fighting Temerair, J M W Turner, 1838

The Eruption of the Souffrier Mountains, JMW Turner 1815

Turner was also interested in Geology, which led to a great demand for paintings of volcanoes.

At the start of the 1770s, an international group of artists gathered around the volcanologist William Hamilton (1731-1803), who resided as the British ambassador at the court of Naples at the foot of Mount Vesuvius.

Please see my ‘fireworks’ image below, inspired by Turner’s work:

Fireworks, Reading, Berkshire – photo taken by Hugo Richardson

The painters in his circle strove for realistic depictions of nature; they were interested in scientific inquiry and participated in the debate between the Plutonists and the Neptunists.

‘Neptunists’ believed that all rocks, including granite and basalt were formed by crystallization of material from the early earth’s oceans.

‘Plutonists’ believed that the rocks of the earth were formed through volcanic and magnetic action.

Crimson Sunset, J M W Turner, 1825

Moreover, the aesthetic qualities of fiery sunsets were always worthy visual material.

Sunset over Wiltshire Landscape, photo by Hugo Richardson

Turner arrived at a concept of landscape painting in which fire was not only used to create decorative affects, like those in the works of his contemporaries, but also became an integral part of his understanding of nature.

Firelight and lamplight were often subjects that Turner chose for his art.  This next piece of art focuses upon a fireplace in a bedroom.

A Bedroom with a Fire Burning, and a Bed with Yellow Curtains, JMW Turner 1827

Please see an interior photograph that focuses upon a living room stove, after Turner’s work of art above.

Stove Fireplace with a Round Candelabra for diffuse Light, photograph by Hugo Richardson

Glow of Bonfire, Art Photograph by Hugo Richardson

Next week Turner and The Elements – Earth

Local scenes of Reading, now on sale at Reading Museum

JWM Turner – The Elements – Air

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‘The Service of the Clouds’

   

Entrance of the Meuse, JWM Turner, Orange Merchant Ship on the bar, 1819

The approach that English painters had for landscape painting, at the beginning of Turner’s career, included the ‘aerial perspective’ (used predominantly by Dutch artists in the 15th Century)

This system was a formula for producing atmospheric effect.  The process was used for ensuring uniformity in a painting.

Distant objects were depicted as paler and bluer; those in the middle distance were green and objects in the foreground were brown.

The farther away the object the less detailed it became.

However, in the second half of the eighteenth century, English painters felt that aerial perspective’s inflexible colour scheme was imperfect.

They realised that the appearance of objects in the landscape depended on light, the movement of clouds and weather conditions.

Artists like Turner, John R Cozens, Thomas Girtin and Francis Towne changed their styles to allow for this.

Their choice of colours and brushstrokes captured the impression of a fleeting, transient moment.

This changeability in nature focused on the style that John Ruskin (1819-1900) called “service of the clouds.”

Turner was particularly adept at painting the sky, light and vapour – air.

The element of air played the most important role in Ruskin’s assessment of the innovations Turner contributed to painting.

According to Ruskin, Turner’s depictions of space were based on atmospheric transparency.

This achieved a more truthful representation of nature and was a part of the scientific foundation of art promoted not only by Ruskin, but also Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832).

Turner’s work had vibrance to it, more closely showing the action of seeing through the sky rather than looking at it.

This is the effect that I am also trying to achieve with my photography.   The camera never lies, but using light, cloud, water vapour and reflection can add a depth to two-dimensions.

Watchers of the skies, through observing what is happening above us, can also have other meanings…

Clearly, from a biblical perspective, the heavens, the skies above, are also important for contemplative moods.  It is said that sitting on a beach for a few days a year, during a vacation is an important act for renewal.

The New Moon; or “I’ve lost My Boat, You shan’t have Your Hoop.” Turner 1840

Where the sea meets the sky is the furthest point that we can ever see, distance wise, with the eyes.  Most work is close up, much of it nowadays screen-based. So having the opportunity to rest the eyes, mind and soul by quietly watching the sun retreat over the horizon, whilst listening to the breathing of the sea waves, can be cathartic.

Perhaps I like Turner’s work because of the reminiscences it invokes of past holidays.

Either way, the sky is never the same from one day to the next, so it always delivers a new perspective.

In 1819, Turner visited Italy.  He was impressed by the intensity of light there.  In Rome, Turner encountered the method of painting in oils directly from nature, which derived from Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes (1750-1819) and his international academy of plein-air painting from the 1770s and 1780s.

During extensive rambles through the Roman Campagna, open-air painters became aware of how important the sky was to achieving a uniform effect in painting.

Clearly, being in the open air, outdoors is also a weekend pursuit many of us look forward to at the weekends.

Sources of research: Turner and the Elements, Bucerus Kunst Forum