Lapis lazuli block
The most famous of all color studies are by Johannes Itten in his book, The Art of Color, last printing 1969. My experience, my work, for the last forty years, in interior design, has proven that truth in color exists and persists in Itten’s studies. It doesn’t matter what type of environment, warm and cool colors affect the mood and physiology of a person as well as how an occupant feels in a room, an environment. Itten says in his book, it may seem strange to identify a sensation of temperature with the visual realm of color sensation.
Chartres Cathedral-Virgin and Child. French stained glass-early example c.1194, warm and cool colors juxtaposed.
However, experiments have demonstrated a difference of five to seven degrees in the subjective feeling of heat or cold between a room painted in blue-green and one painted in red-orange. That is, in the blue-green room the occupants felt that 59 degrees was cold, whereas in the red-orange room they did not feel cold until the temperature fell to 52-54 degrees. Objectively, this meant that blue-green slows down the circulation and red-orange stimulates it.
Similar results were obtained in an animal experiment. A racing stable was divided into two sections, the one painted blue, the other red-orange. In the blue section, horses soon quieted down after running, but in the red section they remained hot and restless. It was found that there were no flies in the blue section, and a great many in the red section.
Both experiments illustrate the pertinence of cold-warm contrast to color planning of interiors. The properties of cold and warm color are essential to color therapeutics in hospitals.
Lyonel Feininger “Sailing Boats” Overlapping triangles of color echo the sails of the boats creating a rhythmic pattern and sense of speed and space.
Blue is easy to live with, although not everyone looks good in blue. (Everyone looks good in turquoise) Fair-skinned folks with a pink pallor look good in blue. Blue is the color of the clear sky and the deep sea. Common connotations are Ice, water, sky, sadness, winter, police, royalty, Hanukkah, boys, cold, calm, magic, trueness,
Blue in the ancient world
Blue was a latecomer among colors used in art and decoration. Reds, blacks, browns, and ochres are found in cave paintings from the Upper Paleolithic period, but not blue. Blue was also not used for dyeing fabric until long after red, ochre, pink and purple. This is probably due to the perennial difficulty of making good blue dyes and pigments. The earliest known blue dyes were made from plants –
Handspun wool dyed with woad
woad in Europe, indigo in Asia and Africa, while blue pigments were made from minerals, usually either lapis lazuli or azurite.
Lapis lazuli, a semi-precious stone, has been mined in Afghanistan for more than three thousand years, and was exported to all parts of the ancient world. In Iran and Mesopotamia, it was used to make jewelry and vessels. In Egypt, it was used for the eyebrows on the funeral mask of King Tutankhamun (1341-1323 BC).
King Tut Mask with lapis lazuli eyebrows
Blue is the color of light between violet and green on the visible spectrum. Hues of blue include indigo and ultramarine, closer to violet; pure blue, without any mixture of other colors; Cyan, which is midway on the spectrum between blue and green, and the other blue-greens turquoise, teal, and aquamarine.
Mark Hampton’s blue and white dining room with Portuguese tiles on walls and painted look-alike on cornice and ceiling by painter Robert Jackson
Blues also vary in shade or tint; darker shades of blue contain black or grey, while lighter tints contain white. Darker shades of blue include ultramarine, cobalt blue, navy blue, and Prussian blue; while lighter tints include sky blue, azure, and Egyptian blue (For a more complete list see the List of colors).
The cost of importing lapis lazuli by caravan across the desert from Afghanistan to Egypt was extremely high. Beginning in about 2500 BC, the ancient Egyptians began to produce their own blue pigment known as Egyptian blue, made by grinding silica, lime, copper and alkalai, and heating it to 800 or 900 degrees C. This is considered the first synthetic pigment. Egyptian blue was used to paint wood, papyrus and canvas, and was used to color a glaze to make faiencebeads, inlays, and pots.
Sunflowers in blue vase
It was particularly used in funeral statuary and figurines and in tomb paintings. Blue was a considered a beneficial color which would protect the dead against evil in the afterlife. Blue dye was also used to color the cloth in which mummies were wrapped.
In Egypt, blue was associated with the sky and with divinity. The Egyptian god Amun could make his skin blue so that he could fly, invisible, across the sky. Blue could also protect against evil; many people around the Mediterranean still wear a blue amulet, representing the eye of God, to protect them from misfortune.
Blue glass was manufactured in Mesopotamia and Egypt as early as 2500 BC, using the same copper ingredients as Egyptian blue pigment. They also added cobalt, which produced a deeper blue, the same blue produced in the Middle Ages in the stained glass windows of the cathedrals of Saint-Denis and Chartres.
The Greeks imported indigo dye from India, calling it indikon. They used Egyptian blue in the wall paintings of Knossos, in Crete, (2100 BC). It was not one of the four primary colors for Greek painting described by Pliny the Elder (red, yellow, black and white), but nonetheless it was used as a background color behind the friezes on Greek temples and to color the beards of Greek statues.
The Romans also imported indigo dye, but blue was the color of working class clothing; the nobles and rich wore white, black, red or violet. Blue was considered the color of mourning. It was also considered the color of barbarians; Julius Caesar reported that the Celts and Germans dyed their faces blue to frighten their enemies, and tinted their hair blue when they grew old.
Madison Beach, Connecticut
Artist: Bing Crosby
Song Title: Blue Skies
Writer(s): Conti, Federico/Brew,Ginger
Blue skies smiling at me
Nothing but blue skies do I see
Bluebirds singing a song
Nothing but bluebirds all day long
Never saw the sun shining so bright
Never saw things going so right
Noticing the days hurrying by
When you’re in love, my, how they fly
Blue days, all of them gone
Nothing but blue skies from now on
Blue Serenity
(Blue skies smiling at me
Nothing but blue skies do I see)
Never saw the sun shining so bright
Never saw things going so right
Noticing the days hurrying by
When you’re in love, my, how they fly
Blue days, all of them gone
Nothing but blue skies from now on
Nothing but blue skies from now on
Tough guy image for my writer friends.
Who knows the tune? It may be available for your phone’s ring tone, if you know how to get it.
Do you like blue? Do you wish you could wear blue? Who is this dude with the tough guy image surrounded with blue tones?
I will return Thursday, September 20th after vacation. Tell you about it then.
Thanks Gayle for commenting.
That was fantastic.I will keep this and pass on. I have been a ‘blue’ lover my whole life. I’m a 3rd generation painter, and blue was handed down by painter grandmother and mother to me, to use and live with. It was just part of their lives from the gorgeous blue my grandmother (Blanche Hesslien) used in her oil paintings to the incredible blue Naugahyde my mother (Bernice Hesslein Erickson) hand covered our dining room chairs and still to this day they sit there reminding me of her love of blue. The same material was used on a footstool, still in the house in Venice, that i love to rest my feet thinking of my mother, smiling up there painting a blue landscape maybe.
That blue, a turquoise cool blue always makes me smile, reminding me of the blue jewelry she loved to wear and to the blue I continue to use in my paintings, here an example http://markerickson.com/New_Paintings/OutlandI.html
Thanks for this, so happy i came upon it, and ironically came across as i was doing some research on Burt Lancaster ( one of her favorite actors)
and to blue eyes and blue skies and the color blue.
many thanks
here, one of mt grandmother’s paintings, blue the star and the color that nails it in this piece called Buddha, Plate & Flowers 1937 – oil on canvas
http://markerickson.com/Family_History/BudhaPlate&Flowers-1937.html
from the deep blue of the western skies
best to you, Mark
Again, I too thank you for another great blog on color. They’re all so informative and make me truly look at colors from a different perspective. For years I had to wear blue–any shade or tone–as part of my uniform code as I was a Public Health Nurse in homecare. We could wear white or red (I think they wanted us to represent the flag), but blue had to be more than 50% of whatever we wore. Though I used to say I was tired of wearing blue, but then realized half my regular clothes were blue. I’m thinking because I had hot flashes and maybe subconsciously I chose the cooler tones. And thank goodness I’m fair skinned. so I can weaar blues. Interesting. Two years ago I went from soft tones of tans/browns in my dining room to a subdued medium/dark blue and it’s stunning, fun, yet soothing and relaxing.
Beverly, thanks. Good to see you here. Your story is getting me acquainted with you some. Blue is beautiful, but why in the dining room? I dare you to go red just below a chair rail.A dining room should be exciting and inviting. A sitting room should be soothing and relaxing, unless it’s a game room. A dark color is always dramatic, but it could be gorgeous amd dramatic in red too. If you decide to do it, let me know. I will give you the perfect color for the dining room. If you are brave, you can do all the walls red, no chair rail. Paint all the trim a glossy/semi-gloss white, ceiling white (really white). Now you have a beautiful backdrop for your art to enjoy while dining. A mirror works too, as long as your guests do not have to see themselves eating. Sort of like the bathroom, never put a mirror across from the potty. I suppose you can figure that one out, right?
Thanks Gail for all the good advice. But I failed to give you a full description, so that’s my fault. My house has lots of big windows. The ceiling and all trim is moderate brown stained wood. Big beams overhead. Diningroom is open to the kitchen(walls painted cantaberry red) and is open to living room with cathedral ceiling at far end. The dining has a brown wooden chair rail that separates the blue(above) from the deep beige lower section. I have curved striped valences that have green, blue, tan and yes red(muted). The whole effect is of an Italian villa type dining room–decorated with paster Italian plaques of grapes and herbs, a picture of wine bread and cheese, etc.. It’s really quite lovely, calming, very welcoming and inspires many to eat well when we have a house full for dinner at the large table. That table sits on an Oriental that has blues, tans and red. But thanks for the suggestions, if I could go white–impossible as the whole house has a lot of wood–again stained (little darker than honey maple but it’s all pine). I know I’m using the easy flow and detail you as an interior designer would give. But that’s it in a nutshell. Oh but I do love all your color blogs. As I said before, please keep them coming. I thoroughloy enjoy each and every one of them. Thanks again.
Hi Gail,
I love the color blue. It’s so peaceful and soothing to the eye. And that picture of the young Burt Lancaster wasn’t so tough on the eye either!! He was quite a looker back in the day.
Thanks Gerri, I love blue too! And I loved Burty boy back in the day. He was sexy guy. I was excited when I found his photo. Thanks for visiting. I just finished your interview with “booksnewhave.” Congratulations, informative interview.
I love to wear blue, especially vivid shades like cobalt and turquoise! They make me feel fresh and vibrant.
On the other hand, live in a cottage where the walls and most of the furniture are all blue. I didn’t choose the color–my family just thought it was cottage-appropriate, I suspect–and I would not have done so. I prefer to live surrounded by warm tones and get my blue fix outdoors. Hmmm….I wonder what that means?
Well, if I could figure out what a “blue fix” is, was, I would jump on it. It isn’t so, though, folks like cool colors in their summer homes/cottages b/c it keeps them cool, temperature, I am talking body temperature. Warm tones will keep you warmer in the cooler weather. I have a little bit of information about cool/warm in the blog. Did you read the part about the horse stalls? I think it was this blog. After a horse race, the giant heros (horses) cool down faster in a blue stall and there are no/few flies, where in a red stall, the horses remain excited and get bit by all the flies. In one of my future blogs, I will conjure up the red images and information. Thank you for visiting. :)))
Gail,
You are a fount of information. To me, the color blue means serenity. I don’t wear the color often–unless its got some green in it, though. I see blue all around me when we are on the ocean and the horizon meets the sky-all different shades of it. Thanks for sharing!
You said it Joy, the horizon meets the sky-all different shades of it. I was at a party last night in a restaurant on the sound. Oh … my … I watched the sunset, and, boohoo, did not have my camera or my paintbrush. It was so gorgeous I couldn’t stop talking about it to anyone who would listen. And I paralleled the scene to God painting the horizon. First the horizon started getting a soft blue, then on top of that color, add some deep pink, then, add some soft pink, then add some yellow, then change that soft blue to stronger blue, and as darkness settled in, the blue became a purply blue encasing the pink and the yellow, so now we have some soft green and blue. Do you think God gives painting workshops? Thank you Joy for visiting.
Thank you, Gail, for all the many meanings of a specific color. And thank you for your information about the physiological changes brought by the use of color. I hadn’t heard that about the colors and the race horses. I had read about how fast food restaurants use bright red and orange for colors because they wanted people to eat and leave, a higher rate of turnover. In the new remodels of Mickey Ds, BKs and even Taco Bell, the colors are more muted and the furniture has more curves. Back home in Kentucky, fans of the University of Kentucky basketball team say they “bleed blue” because the team colors of the UK Wildcats are blue (looks like royal blue) and white.
I forgot to add, enjoy your vacation!
Yup, that is true. The bright colors, eat and run, but also eat more. You can apply that philosophy to your home. For example, a powder room, (oh please, do not eat in there) can be bright or dark b/c you don’t spend much time in there, hopefully. So you can be dramatic with your decorating, and hang valuable art for your guest to enjoy. Oops, I am getting off track. Anyway, the bright colors do add cheer as well, where blue can also be somber. Thank you for the info about the new remodels. These places end up being guinea pigs for the industry. Take Starbucks for example, those santa fe colors have proven worthy of the use, and the variation of the colors in the spaces. Thank you for visiting.
I love all of this information, Gail. In the yogi world, blue is the color associated with the fifth chakra, the throat chakra, which in sanskrit is called Vishudda chakra, meaning purification. This energy center is associated with the thyroid, speech, communication, and speaking your truth. When I have to speak or perform publicly, I try to wear something blue to give me confidence. I also have a lapis lazuli pendant that I often wear when I need to confront a situation that requires me to approach with confidence and wisdom. When my husband made our concrete counter tops, I chose to add aggregate pieces of jadite and lapis which, when added to the deep charcoal grey of the concrete, add a beautiful contrast and are very cooling in my otherwise warm kitchen:-)
Thank you Paula, I love hearing about other cultures and how they approach the color system. Of course there is the Feng Shui philosophy with the , earth, wind, fire. base colors are red, black, white. For example in Feng Shui Fire Element Colors are red, orange, purple, pink, strong yellow.
So the yogi world has it’s own, I am unfamiliar. I can imagine your concrete counter with those aggregate pieces of jadite and lapis would be gorgeous. I am impressed with your use of concrete counter tops, and that your guy made them. How do you find the upkeep? Are they highly polished? Do you enjoy working on the concrete?