Orange

Perspectives from The Artist's Road

Orange Cosmos, Marigolds and Iris Photo John Hulsey

“Orange is like a man - convinced of his own powers.”

- Wassily Kandinsky, “Concerning the Spiritual in Art”, 1912

We’ve been thinking about the color orange lately, as we admire our orange Cosmos flowers in the summer garden. The flowers absorb all other wavelengths of sunlight, only giving back the orange hues. They really stand out amongst the other flowers there, much as any orange object really stands out in any situation. We normally think of bright red as the stand-out color, but orange is almost universally used as a warning color or as an aid to visibility in signage, school buses, clothing, equipment and many items and products which need to grab attention or seem exciting. Look around your home and you will probably find an orange-colored item. Notice how brightly it contrasts with the surroundings. It is also often used as a happy color in packaging, publishing, and every conceivable media. We are fascin…