I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - colour is amazing.
Well… I may have said at 3 in the morning to my snoozing partner who didn't hear me on account of his earplugs. You weren’t there to hear it either, so I’ll say it here for good measure.
Colour is amazing – and not just for its historical impact, cultural connotations or scientific properties – but because it’s something we are all drawn to.
I remember at the very first craft fair where I sold my art a man picked up one of my pieces (I believe it was Fungi and Ferns II) and blinked a couple of times, as though he’d just woken up and looked into the sun.
“Blimey…” he muttered and turned to me and said: “a strong head for colour then?”
I thought it was funny and honest. It pointed out the first thing people tend to notice when they see my work:
It is colourful. And it’s loud because of it.
The man moved on fairly sharpish without making a purchase, and I wasn’t insulted in the slightest. I liked the fact that it had had an effect, regardless of whether or not he bought it.
I liked the fact that it seemed to engage him, and perhaps awoke him from whatever mental drudgery he had been wading through.
Colour, for me, is a symbol of vitality and life, and it should be celebrated as such.
Now, I’m not saying you need to shove as much colour into every single aspect of life in order to make this point, understanding measure and subtlety is also important. The absence of colour can make its presence feel more profound, and context matters just as much as the colour itself.
However, I take a firm stand against stripping life of its colour in the name of minimalism and faux elegance.
If you’re afraid of colour just admit that you’re a boring bastard and be done with it.
Kidding, kidding.
But my point still stands.
I think we could all do with a little less pallid puritanism and a little more joie de vivre.
So – fill your rooms, your lives, your bodies with colour! It’s all outside in your garden anyway. You might as well bring some of it in.
All you have to do is step into a garden in summer to see the explosion of loud, attention-grabbing chaos that nature presents. And you only need to watch insects buzzing about the brightest flower to see what spellbound looks like.
I don’t think we’re any different, really.
Follow the bees, that’s what I say.
They might have touched on a kind of wisdom we’d all benefit from.
If you’ve made it this far, congrats - you’re now legally obliged to surround yourself with vibrant colour.
Also, here’s a bunch of keywords for the robots because stuffing keywords into my writing kind of ruins my flow:
colourful artwork, bold colour in art, gouache artist, watercolour illustration, botanical art, vibrant art, contemporary nature artist, art inspired by nature, expressive painting, emotional artwork, maximalist art, British artist, colourful wall art, plant-inspired painting, insect illustration, colour and emotion, nature art prints, modern botanical painting, art for colour lovers
Check out all my prints here, or get in touch at ruth@ruthiart.com if you're looking for an original.