Most artists find painting as a therapeutic activity that allows them to express their suppressed feelings like anger, happiness and the likes. In fact, aside from being a recreation activity or as a means of livelihood for some, it has contributed a lot to the self-fulfillment and improvement of a person. In abstract art paintings or contemporary paintings for example, the way the colors, forms, shapes and texture were conducted and used by the artist reflects their inner emotions, personality or the entire totality of its maker.
Colors for one create a very big impact on the attitude and meaning of these artworks. So what do they represent and how do they affect the brain? Here are a few of their meanings:
-White signifies guidance, purity, cleanliness and peace.
-Black has a lot of meanings associated with it. But basically, they could mean elegance, intelligence, power, mystery, sorrow, seriousness or death
-Red, just like black, also has a lot of meanings that may depend on a person’s culture. Red for Chinese means celebration but means mourning in South Africa. Generally, it has meanings that tend to pick up both sides of the stick since they are the opposites of each other such as passion, love, war and anger. In addition, the red color helps increase activity in the brain, heart rate.
-Blue symbolizes peace, calmness, confidence, harmony, trust and coldness. Sometimes, it may also means sadness as usually heard in the expression “I’m feeling blue”, meaning that the person is feeling down.
-Yellow symbolizes energy, enthusiasm or joy. But it may also refer to cowardice, dishonesty and illness.
-Green never fails to help relax the mind because it is a color that helps an anxious or depressed person soothe. Basically, it is usually related to ‘freshness’ (because it is the common color of nature), wealth, renewal and youth. For its downside, it may also mean envy (as in green with envy) and greed.
Want to see the burst of colors come alive in your own room? Try to walk in an abstract gallery where you will see abstract art paintings make use of colors as their focal subject.