I’m not sure how to think about this new element that has crept into my work – colour. Colour – this is a perfectly natural part of…no essential part of most artwork to some degree. For me I have avoided it like the plague, not because I really wanted to – or that I had no use for it; but because I am colour blind. For years now I have been fascinated by the qualities and the value of the simple drawn line, it’s power to convey thoughts and feelings, it’s abilities to present energy and information – but now I have found it is not enough; and I say this in the context of knowing there is a whole world of colour (options) for my work and only having a limited perception of its uses.
This coloured crossroad not only comes with benefits, new avenues of exploration and potential enrichment for my work – it comes with problems. Garish colours, colours that lack any subtlety – or worse the wrong colour or the lack of awareness that colours have mixed and created something that I did not intend or lend the piece connotations which are obvious to those with good colour vision but undetectable to me.
Perhaps what I should do is embrace this lack of awareness and make the colours big and bold and vivid? Who says internal dialogue is unhealthy?
