And so the arts are encroaching one upon another, and from a
proper use of this encroachment will rise the art that is truly
monumental. Every man who steeps himself in the spiritual
possibilities of his art is a valuable helper in the building of
the spiritual pyramid which will some day reach to heaven.
PART II: ABOUT PAINTING
V. THE PSYCHOLOGICAL WORKING OF COLOUR
To let the eye stray over a palette, splashed with many colours,
produces a dual result. In the first place one receives a PURELY
PHYSICAL IMPRESSION, one of pleasure and contentment at the
varied and beautiful colours. The eye is either warmed or else
soothed and cooled. But these physical sensations can only be of
short duration. They are merely superficial and leave no lasting
impression, for the soul is unaffected. But although the effect
of the colours is forgotten when the eye is turned away, the
superficial impression of varied colour may be the starting point
of a whole chain of related sensations.
On the average man only the impressions caused by very familiar
objects, will be purely superficial. A first encounter with any
new phenomenon exercises immediately an impression on the soul.
This is the experience of the child discovering the world, to
whom every object is new. He sees a light, wishes to take hold of
it, burns his finger and feels henceforward a proper respect for
flame. But later he learns that light has a friendly as well as
an unfriendly side, that it drives away the darkness, makes the
day longer, is essential to warmth, cooking, play-acting. From
the mass of these discoveries is composed a knowledge of light,
which is indelibly fixed in his mind. The strong, intensive
interest disappears and the various properties of flame are
balanced against each other. In this way the whole world becomes
gradually disenchanted. It is realized that trees give shade,
that horses run fast and motor-cars still faster, that dogs bite,
that the figure seen in a mirror is not a real human being.
As the man develops, the circle of these experiences caused by
different beings and objects, grows ever wider. They acquire an
inner meaning and eventually a spiritual harmony. It is the same
with colour, which makes only a momentary and superficial
impression on a soul but slightly developed in sensitiveness. But
even this superficial impression varies in quality. The eye is
strongly attracted by light, clear colours, and still more
strongly attracted by those colours which are warm as well as
clear; vermilion has the charm of flame, which has always
attracted human beings. Keen lemon-yellow hurts the eye in time
as a prolonged and shrill trumpet-note the ear, and the gazer
turns away to seek relief in blue or green.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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