Colors

"[S]timuli above adaptation reflectance are tinged with the hue of the illuminant, stimuli below adaptation levels are tinged with the afterimage complementary to the hue of the illuminant, and stimuli at or near adaptation reflectance are either achromatic or weakly saturated color of uncertain hue."

"There, for the price of just two sous, I found crépons and rice papers in astonishing colours. I covered the walls of my room with these naïve and gaudy pictures. ...It was not until much later that I became aware of the beauty of the great Japanese masters, more subdued by far, yet less elucidating in terms of pure colour."

"Color is that aspect of the appearance of objects and lights which depends upon the spectral composition of the reaching the of the eye and upon its temporal and spatial distribution thereon."

"When Michael saw this host, he first grew pale, As angels can; next like Italian twilight, He turned all colours—as a peacocks tail, Or sunset streaming through a Gothic Skylight In some old abbey, or a trout not stale, Or distant lightning on the horizon by night Or a fresh rainbow, or a grand review Of thirty regiments in red, green, and blue."

"...I am always between two currents of thought, first the material difficulties, turning round and round to make a living; and second, study of color. I am always in hope of making a discovery there, to express the love of two lovers by a marriage of two complementary colors, their mingling and their opposition, the mysterious vibrations of kindred tones. To express the thought of a brow by the radiance of a light tone against a sombre background. To express hope by some star, the eagerness of a soul by a sunset radiance. Certainly there is nothing in that of stereoscopic realism, but is it not some thing that actually exists?"

"Colour has a logic as exact as that of form. One must not give up before capturing that first impression."

"This pencil take (she said), whose colours clear Richly paint the vernal year:"

"Just as when painters are elaborating temple-offerings, men whom wisdom hath well taught their art,—they, when they have taken pigments of many colours with their hands, mix them in due proportion, more of some and less of others, and from them produce shapes like unto all things, making trees and men and women, beasts and birds and fishes that dwell in the waters, yea, and gods, that live long lives, and are exalted in honour,—so let not the error prevail over thy mind, that there is any other source of all the perishable creatures that appear in countless numbers. Know this for sure, for thou hast heard the tale from a goddess."

"There are many arguments to prove that darkness is not a colour, but merely privation of light..."

"When you go out to paint try to forget what object you have before you—a tree, a house, a field or whatever. Merely think, here is a little streak of blue, here an oblong of pink, here a streak of yellow, and paint it just as it looks to you, the exact color and shape, until it emerges as your own naive impression of the scene before you. I would like to paint the way a bird sings."

"Every one of the Impressionists examines the exact shade that is before his eyes and then matches it with the color on his palette and applies it to his canvas. But who can say that this color is the true color of that one minute? Even the artist himself has forgotten. All that mass of exact colors is lifeless, frozen. He lies stupidly..."

"In regard to the life of every one, whether man, spirit, or angel... it flows in from the Lord alone, who is life itself... But the life which flows in is received by every one according to his character; good and truth are received as good and truth by the good; while by the evil good and truth are received as evil and falsity, and are even changed into evil and falsity in them. It is comparatively as the light of the sun; which diffuses itself into all objects on the earth, but is received according to the quality of each object, and becomes of a beautiful colour in beautiful forms, and of an ugly colour in ugly forms. ...But I know the fallacy will prevail with many that they will of themselves, and think of themselves, and so of themselves have life, when yet nothing is less true."