When I was a child, I saw the Wizard of Oz movie at our neighborhood theater. What a joy it was to have the black and white screen suddenly turn into technicolor! But color is not confined to fantasy worlds. Our real world is in full color. Thank goodness! Can you picture a sunrise or sunset in black and white??

From our earliest days we learned about the primary colors and how mixing them magically became secondary colors, and then tertiary colors. But every basic color has many hues. It took the movie studios almost a week to decide on the shade of yellow used for the yellow brick road! You may have faced a similar dilemma as you chose paint for your living room.

It was Isaac Newton at the age of 23 who discovered that light is composed of colors. He used a prism to break up a single ray of light. He went on to name the seven basic colors and invent the color wheel.

How We See Color

We perceive color because of cells in our eyes called cones. The three types of cones pick up the light reflected by objects ad transmits it to our brains.  It’s said that normal human beings can see about ten million colors. Some people, called tetrachromats, have an extra cone in their eye that enables them to see up to 100 million colors! Birds and butterflies see even more colors.

Colorful Treats

Autumn up here in the north provides a feast for our eyes. The amazing trees with leaves changing to red, orange, and gold and the every-changing skies a mix of white, blue, slate, and dark grey are sights to behold. Once when I needed to stay overnight in Vermont, the hotels and inns were packed full of “leaf-peepers.” So I spent the night in a family’s home.

God delights in color. Consider the flowers that come in various colors, birds’ feathers and butterflies’ wings.

One of my favorite poems: “Pied Beauty” by Gerard Manley Hopkins

Glory be to God for dappled things—
   For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
       For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
   Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;
       And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;
   Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
       With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
                                     Praise Him.

Click this to see a collection of poems about color on the Internet.

Getting Acquainted with Color

Recall the joy of using colors to produce artwork. As we aged, crayola boxes went from 8 to 12 to 24 to 64 to 120 different colors. Then too there were paints: Prang watercolor paint, tempera paint, and oil paint. We learned the colors of the shimmering rainbow by Roy G. Biv.

Now adult coloring books are all the rage. Click here to see a site that offers Thanksgiving coloring pages.

Five Little Crayons by Unknown

Five little crayons colored a scene.
Yellow, blue, orange, red and green.
“Look,” said Yellow, “My sun is bright!”
Blue said, “Great! My river’s just right”
Orange said, “Flowers! I’ll draw something new”
Red said, “Great, I’ll add some too!”
“Sigh,” said Green, “I’m tired of trees,
And grass and bushes and tiny leaves.
I think I’ll draw a big green cloud!”
“A big green cloud should be allowed!”
The crayons all smiled and didn’t think twice.
A big green cloud sounded rather nice!

We Sisters wore black and white habits, then progressed to gray. Now we are free to wear clothes from the whole array of colors. What joy!  Someone from the Color Me Beautiful company gave us a presentation about what colors we would look best in, depending on if we were a winter, autumn, summer, or spring person. My friend was disheartened to learn that she looked best in black and white!

Differences in Colors

Most people have a favorite color. I think God’s is blue because that is the color of the whole sky and all the bodies of water that reflect it. That is also my favorite color.  

Colors reflect moods. The warm colors are happy. The cool colors are peaceful. We associate certain colors with holidays: red and green for Christmas, orange for Halloween, purple and yellow for Easter, red and pink for Valentine’s Day.

We associate colors with emotions:  Saw red. Green with envy. In a black mood. He was yellow. She woke up blue. The combination red and yellow induces hunger!

Colors have different meanings.

Another Poem about Color

Color

Christina Rossetti

What is pink? a rose is pink
By a fountain’s brink.
What is red? a poppy’s red
In its barley bed.
What is blue? the sky is blue
Where the clouds float thro’.
What is white? a swan is white
Sailing in the light.
What is yellow? pears are yellow,
Rich and ripe and mellow.
What is green? the grass is green,
With small flowers between.
What is violet? clouds are violet
In the summer twilight.
What is orange? Why, an orange,
Just an orange!

What is your favorite color?

What is the most beautiful, colorful scene you have witnessed?

Who is your favorite painter? What is your favorite painting?

 For an interesting video about choosing colors: