Color Buzz

The Colors of Food

By Michele Coppin

The color of fruits and vegetables can be as beautiful as the color of flowers. The color combinations and variations are endless as they grow, ripen and mature.  Fruits and vegetables have actually been inspiring artists for centuries. “Food portraits” are known as “still lifes.”

Jan Van Huysum, Still Life with Fruit
Oil on copper, 1720
Rijhsmuseum, Amsterdam

These delicious palettes herald the presence of nutrients. Color indicates the ingredients we need for good health. For example:

REDS are packed with vitamins (A C), protect your heart, maintain good blood pressure, and help to protect against some cancers.

GREENS are packed with vitamins (A,C,B,K), provide a source of iron, and boost your immune system.

YELLOW and ORANGE are packed with vitamins (C and B) that keep you eyes strong, boost your immune system and promote glowing skin.

WHITE, such as cheese and yogurt, is packed with calcium.

Some of my favorites in both appearance and taste are asparagus, baby artichokes, fresh garlic, cheese and bread. A glass of red wine would complement this tableau nicely…

Greens speak of youth, nature, fresh starts and cool mornings. Purples, dark reds and burgundy suggest the end of summer, setting sun, heat, and royalty. These opposites however make a very elegant color combination.

 

                                                   
Tropical foliage 6002 – 6C                               Garden Fresh 6008 – 7C

                                                

Hotel St Francis Sangre de Christo 1010 – 6    Accent Frosty Berry 1003 – 1B

 

What do colors symbolize?

By Michele Coppin

Historically, mankind has given symbolic value to colors. As societies developed, colors came to represent different concepts and served multiple functions. They emphasized certain meanings within an image, indicated status, expressed identity, etc. Of course, these meanings are very different depending on the culture they belong to.

Here are some examples of the meanings of various colors from Western European societies.

White: From the birth of the new moon, often associated with birth, purity, cleanliness. Brides wear white to symbolize innocence and purity.

Black: Mourning, death, earth, seriousness, submission. Priests wear black to signify submission to God.

Red: the most emotional color, red signifies passion and love. Hearts are always red, but red also symbolizes blood, fighting and ardor.

Yellow: Warmth, sun, happiness, gold. Yellow also symbolizes cowardice, betrayal and hatred.

Orange: Warmth, wealth.

Green: Calming and refreshing, it is the color of spring and youth. (Walt Disney dressed Peter Pan in green. As the little boy who wouldn’t grow up, the eternal youth wears a tunic reminiscent of foliage. Green also symbolizes envy. 

Blue: The color of the sky and the ocean. Blue symbolizes sincerity, loyalty, peacefulness and tranquility. Blue also connotes melancholy, sadness and isolation. Picasso’s “Blue Period” began shortly after he moved from Barcelona to Paris. He was poor, depressed and cold. From 1900 to 1904, he primarily painted thin, elongated figures in variations of blue. When his work began to sell and his spirits lifted, his palette shifted to Pink.   

The Tragedy, 1903
Picasso
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Purple: The color of royalty. Purple connotes luxury, wealth, power and dignity.

In Antiquity, purple was derived from a rare sea snail so expensive (even more than gold), it became a symbol of royalty as only the very wealthy could afford it.

The Byzantine emperor Justinian I appears clad in a purple cape in this 6^th century mosaic from the San Vitale Basilica in  Ravenna, Italy.

Bringing Functionality and Feeling Together

So many homes these days are built with a great room which serves as a giant architectural multi-tasker. These rooms have a conflict; they are lofty and vast compared with the rest of the home, but they are also a place where the family comes together. One way to bring the function and the feel of the room together is by painting it a subtle color that almost reads as a white. You need a color that feels light in order to avoid creating an enormous cave. First, consider what is going on in the rest of the house. Is it cool and modern? Or, is it warm and cozy? A cool-palette home could have a warm grey-blue in the space. Perhaps use a color like Valspar Woodlawn Sterling Blue or Tempered Gray. These tones can hold the space together gently without feeling too cold. For homes that are warmer in nature, colors like Valspar Belle Grove Light Amber or Baked Scone give warmth without dragging the space down.  It’s like when you paint a space that reads white, but there’s much more at work.


                                       
        Woodlawn Sterling Blue 5001-3B      Tempered Gray 4004-1A



                                       
         Belle Grove Light Amber 3006-8B      Baked Scone 3007-8B

Tangerine Dreaming...

Time Magazine has a great design issue out right now – the Style and Design Summer 2008 issue. They have an entire page on tangerine. When I was little, I wanted a yellow and orange room more than anything. The idea of warm sunny walls was all I had in mind. My parents humored me and painted the walls white and allowed me to have orange trim with a yellow shag carpet – very groovy. But the white walls always looked so stark against the vibrant orange. Now that I get to pick my own colors, I still love orange. It’s vibrant, sophisticated and – most of all – a flattering color. Most people look aglow when surrounded by orange. It can be sumptuous. Try it as accents: pillows, ceramics, window treatments, flowers, etc. If you’re a little more adventurous like me, try a wall of orange. Take a color like Valspar Coffee Whip and surround it with a warm off white like Woodlawn Whitewash. Total YUM!!!

                                                  
                 This image was created by using Valspar.com’s Painter tool.
             The wall color is Coffee Whip and the trim is Woodlawn Whitewash.
            Try your own color combinations and tell us what you think of the tool!


                                                  
                 Coffee Whip 2008-3A                    Woodlawn Whitewash 6008-1A