The Importance of Colour in Art?

This study will explore the importance of colour in art and photography as colour is an essential
element in all aspects of art. The colours we see are influenced by the characteristics of the light
source. Colours can evoke emotions both positive and negative and understanding and adopting
colour theory can assist us to choose a colour in our work to elicit a response from our audience.

Choices regarding the intensity and range of the colours extend from the belief of colour theory which
is fundamental for many artists in the creation of their final pieces as colour theory is meant to explain
how people perceive colour; and the visual effects of how colours mix with each other. Colour Theory
is laid out in a colour wheel which consists of three primary colours, three secondary colours and six
tertiary colours, the colour wheel can also be separated into warm colours (reds, oranges, yellows) and
cold colours (blues, greens, purples). Shading is also an important choice in painting, shades are
created by adding black to a colour, while tints are created by adding white.

Photography builds on this as colour begins with light and the colours we see are influenced by the
characteristics of the light source. Photographers can choose which colours they wish to use or
heighten as they can choose to manipulate the colours to affect the viewers through the process of
filters, Photoshop and Lightroom. Colours are heavily associated with individual emotions and moods
and their association with particular colours such as red being representative of hatred, passion or
warmth and blood, blue signifying sadness and coldness and black representing bleakness and death.

When people view certain images their preferences for and dislike of other colours, informs where
their eyes are drawn to first. They will form an immediate emotional response long before they have
taken in the whole picture. People make assumptions about a piece, based on this response and it is
only once the viewer invests more time in studying a piece can their initial response be confirmed or
evolve towards a different final view. Artists and photographers can control immediate responses by
using certain colours to draw the viewers eye to a certain part of the image, thus manipulating the
viewers' immediate response.

Source 1: Paul Catherall

Paul Catherall is one of the country’s leading lino-
cut printmakers, renowned for his clean, bold architectural
images. Catherall’s work is highly graphical as he draws
inspiration from Soviet propaganda era artists and the work of
many classic mid-20th Century poster designers like Tom
Purvis, Frank Newbould, Tom Eckersley, William Nicholson
and Michael Schwab stating that their colours were “bright but
muted at the same time and always balanced but always
unusual.”1 Catherall utilities his expert eye for composition and
colour to create bold architectural prints of structures that are
part of the everyday urban environment. Catherall work is highly
graphical and is considered to be “Low Art”.

Catherall uses a limited colour palette in each piece of work to

create simplistic graphic images where large blocks of colours
saturate the piece. In ‘Battersea Blue IV’, the blue sky is the
backdrop for the towers eliciting a sense of a bright summers day
when the horizon is low in the sky. The brown of the building
contrasts against this pale blue but it is how he creates the illusion of shade with the layering of
colours that creates a three-dimensional feeling, tone and depth to what could otherwise be a flat
image.

1
https://www.forartssake.com/interview-paul-catherall/
Source 2: Patrick Caulfield
Patrick Caulfield was an English painter and printmaker
known for his bold canvases, which often incorporated
elements of photorealism within a pared-down scene. From
the mid-1970s he incorporated more detailed, realistic
elements into his work. Typically, Caulfield uses flat areas of
colour with black outlines which make his works more
comprehensible as well as helps to unclutter the image. Some
of Caulfield’s works are dominated by a single hue. Caulfield
work is associated frequently with “low art” meaning it is
accessible and easily comprehended by the masses. Caulfield
uses “non-art” materials in the hopes of destroying the
traditional barriers between “High art” and “Low art”

Within the ‘Sun Lounge’, Caulfield is able to create a sense

of intense light introducing a range of shadows and lighting
effects by applying different shades of colours across his
image. This is important as within the image it creates the
feeling that the sun is setting, and the evening is approaching
at the end of a hot summers’ day. Caulfield declares “I like a very structured painting... I simply try to
make a logical, a seemingly logical, space that could exist.” 2 And that his limited use of strong colours
and simple black outlines help to provide depth and structure to Caulfield’s final piece, so they remain
solid and realistic through the wash of colour. Caulfield said that “whether an object was depicted in
the foreground or the background, the evenness of the line was the same, so it rather denied the
illusion of space, although it represented it”. 3 As with many of Caulfield’s larger scale paintings, a
life-sized object is placed in the foreground, in this case, a chair, to draw the viewer into the scene.

Both Catherall and Caulfield through their work show the importance of colour in art. They are both
known for creating highly graphical realistic scenes of everyday life enhanced by limited palettes of
colour to create bold images. However, they differ in their complexity with Catherall taking a
simplistic approach and Caulfield’s work considered to be more complex with more objects crowded
into his images. Both incorporate a light source within their images to create shadows to provide the
images with depth. Another way Caulfield differs from Catherall is his use of bold outlines, which he
uses to define and separate the different objects in his images. The use of different shades of colours
creates light differentials and suggests areas of shadow. Caulfield’s complication is further
demonstrated by the broad palette of colour he applies compared to Catherall as Caulfield uses a
multitude of colours to detail his images. Catherall in his simplistic nature produces flatter images as a
result of his only applies a base palette of five colours and not inclusion of outlines. Both further
explore the use of colour with the idea of colour theory using a range of colours within the image to
evoke certain emotional responses. Although both artists were considered to be instrumental in the
‘pop art’ world and both images are examples of this style, Caulfield in particular, was not happy with
this label. Their approach and use of materials were very different with Catherall using lino printing to
create his images while Caulfield preferring to work in acrylic paint before overlaying using digital
editing software as well as “non-art” materials to create his final image.

2
[PDF] Patrick Caulfield – Tate
3
[PDF] Patrick Caulfield – Tate