Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Brilliant Orange

I am MAD about ORANGE!  LOVE IT!!  I love every juicy hue, tone and shade of it.  I couldn't live with it indoors - it's much too strong and active a colour, but outside, in the crisp, clear Autumn air, against a background of burning blue or mysteries-of-the-ages green,  it fills my soul with a frenzy of delight.

                                                      

I love it in a wild tangle, as in the Chinese Lanterns  above and below, spilling it's bright abandon where ever it feels like roaming.                      

                                                                                                   

And I love it tamed, well, (as tamed as Orange ever gets) in a glory of copper pansies.  Last year, I found some spectacular ones in Orange and Black!

          
Orange of course,  is the happy marriage between red and yellow.   You  can buy it in a tube or you can mix it yourself.  There's really no shame in using tube colours!    They have been carefully mixed by people who know what they are doing, and each quality company produces results you can count on.  But if you are the sort who likes a walk on the wild side now and then, you can mix your own secondary and tertiary colours.   ? ?  Many of you who read this are artists, but for those of you who are not, a Secondary colour is one that is created by mixing two Primary Colours.  A Tertiary colour is created by mixing a Secondary colour with a Primary.    Red, Yellow, and Blue are Primary colours, and you either buy them in a tube or you get hold of the correct minerals and suspensions and a grinding stone.  These colours can not be created  by mixing other paints.  But mix a Primary (Cadmium) Red with a Primary (Cadmium) Yellow, and  ORANGE blossoms forth!!!    Change the recipe a bit by using more red or more yellow, and the orange hue changes.  Add a little of it's complimentaty colour - blue - and you tone it down.  Set the complimentary colour beside it, and both colours blast.  I love colour magic!
I'm going to take a quick ramble through the garden now, to soak up the glory of orange. 


Cheers,                                                                                                                                            Heather                                                                                                                                           www.heatheranderson-animalart.com                                     *  All photos are copyright Heather Anderson

2 comments:

  1. I LOVE the color orange. Coupled with a soft hue of paynes grey or a deep dioxazine purple, orange demands attention and gives feelings of warmth...:) In fact, my kitchen is painted a warm terra cotta orange. Love your post today Heather...:)

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  2. Thank you Caron :) I'm glad you enjoyed it. Your kitchen sounds lovely.

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