I like pure red light (#FF0000) because its relaxing and lessens visual information overload
Baker-Miller pink is also interesting, was proposed to reduce violence and promote calmness in prison. Also very relaxing
I like pure red light (#FF0000) because its relaxing and lessens visual information overload
Baker-Miller pink is also interesting, was proposed to reduce violence and promote calmness in prison. Also very relaxing
What I call Parrish light - the distinctive tone that’s prominent in Maxfield Parrish’s paintings.
It’s a relatively subdued but clear reddish orange that I see most commonly with relatively uniform but thin thunderclouds at dusk. It makes blues and greens much more vivid, in spite of the fact that the overall amount of light is relatively low. And it’s glorious.
investigates
This painting of his – Daybreak – has a pale red-orange and has blues and greens that sort of jump out more because of that, I suppose. Is this what you’re referring to?
Pretty much.
Don’t get too hung up on the name - it’s just a personal bit of shorthand. What I’m talking about is the actual phenomenon. Parrish’s paintings are just the closest popular representation I’ve seen of it.
It seems to happen most often in late summer, when (in my area at least) afternoon thundershowers are relatively common. There are times when the clouds will roll in, but they’re not dense enough to bring rain, and just at dusk, the light through those clouds is diffused but oddly clear, so in spite of the fact that the light level is low overall, colors, and especially blues and greens, really pop.
In HSL terms, it’s essentially 100% saturation but only maybe 30% light, and since the light shifts toward red/orange, the blues and greens are the colors that stand out the most.
A little physics of light correction: The colors that red and orange light cause to pop are red and orange. Red/orange light does cast a blue/green shadow color, though. The compliment of a light’s color is always the ambient color temperature of the light source’s shadow. That may be what you mean because a Red/Orange light will always make Reds and Oranges more intense than other colors since that is where most light energy is accumulated. For example, if I put a Red gel over a light then cast that light upon a solid blue surface, significantly less light would be bouncing off that surface than if I had used a Red surface.
https://www.muddycolors.com/2022/07/color-theory-part-9-the-anatomy-of-shadows/
Hmm…
I would assume then that the effect is somehow tied in with the fact that the light is diffused and relatively dim, since it’s simply a fact that the blues and greens are the colors that pop. Possibly there isn’t enough light to show up orange or red - effectively, everything is sort of in shadow?
And by contrast, as I write this, it’s very smoky where I am, and yes - the light is notably orange. And I’ve noticed before that when it’s like this, shadows have an obvious blue tint.
Favorite all-time painter!
“Raphael, imma let you finnish, but Maxfield Parrish was the one of the best painters of all time. Of all time!”