Simply Red – SOLD – Prints Available
Courage, sacrifice, and love or anger, danger, and war? Red is such an interesting color to correlate with emotion, because it’s on both ends of the spectrum. On one end you have happiness, falling in love, infatuation with someone, and passion. On the other end, you’ve got obsession, jealousy, danger, fear, anger and frustration. The color red can be associated with the happiest feelings as well as with the worst. Being the color that elicits the strongest reactions, it is no surprise that its symbolism can lie on both ends of the spectrum.
First employed in prehistoric cave paintings, red ochre is one of the oldest pigments still in use. Found in iron-rich soil and first employed as an artistic material (as far as we know) in prehistoric cave paintings. Centuries later, during the 16th and 17th centuries, the most popular red pigment came from a cochineal insect, a creature that could only be found on prickly-pear cacti in Mexico. These white bugs produced a potent red dye so sought-after by artists and patrons that it quickly became the third greatest import out of the “New World” (after gold and silver), as explains Victoria Finlay in A Brilliant History of Color in Art. Raphael, Rembrandt, and Rubens all used cochineal as a glaze, layering the pigment atop other reds (like red ochre) to increase their intensity. A non-toxic source for red pigment, the cochineal bug is still used to color lipsticks and blush today. <From: A Brief History of Color in Art, The Art Genome Project By Sarah Gottesman>
This painting titled “Simply Red” is about how one color can tell a passionate story. It captures the eye and holds it. You can’t ignore its energy, determination and power. Being the color of physical movement, the color red awakens our physical life force. This one color conveys blood and strength and life.
With all that being said, it just may be an injustice to title my painting “Simply Red” since there is nothing simple about Red. I do love red.
Bright reds – scarlet, pillar-box red, crimson or cherry – are very cheerful and youthful. There is certainly a red for everyone. Christian Dior
Title: Simply Red – Sold
Medium: Mixed Media
Size: 48×12
Dare to Feel,
Red
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