Joen Wolfrom’s Playing with Color: How Green is Green?
Joen Wolfrom | July 20, 2011
Today is green day. I have rarely met a green I didn’t like, so I am excited about featuring this diverse group of colors.
Since most vegetation is green, it’s not hard to believe that green is the most prevalent color in nature. What’s really important to realize is green is not just green. The word green is not only used as a name of a color; but it is also the name of a range of green colors that vary in their makeup and personalities. This green spectrum includes six colors: chartreuse, yellow-green, spring green, green, blue-green, and aqua green. If you gaze into a garden or a woodland, it would not be surprising to see the total green spectrum represented in trees, shrubs, plants, and grasses.
Notice how beautiful the range of greens are—moving from warm chartreuse to cool aqua green. The green that lies between spring green and blue-green is temperature neutral—it doesn’t have a leaning toward warmth or coolness. Its name is green. You can see the three green families on one side of this green appear warm while the two green families on the other side appear cool. (Color temperature will be addressed in a future blog.)
Green has some definite characteristics that you may wish to consider before beginning a project featuring green. They inc
lude:
1. Green represents the season of spring. It symbolizes fertility, rebirth, and youth.
2. Green represents earth, nature, and the environment.
3. The color green physically relaxes our eyes. This creates a sense of natural calming.
4. The color green is considered a peaceful color that promotes harmony.
5. Because yellow-green and chartreuse are closely related to yellow, they can be visually stimulating.
6. Most earth, nature, and environmentally related businesses and organizations use green hues for their logos, signage, and advertisements.
7. Because it is believed that green evokes a sense of calmness and peacefulness, a green paint is often used on the walls of governmental institutions, hospitals, and businesses. When green is used on walls for a calming influence, it is important that the paint chosen be from a hue in the green family, which promotes these emotions. The paint should not be derived from a warm-colored green, such as spring green or yellow-green.
8. I hesitate to include this last little tidbit of color psychology, but I shall: If you are a man and you are heading for a job interview, do not wear strongly-colored green clothing, if you want to be hired. If you wear bright green, it’s almost certain you won’t get the job because there is an innate feeling of distrust for men wearing strong green colors. There are three exceptions that come to mind—-if you are a golfer, you can get away with wearing anything. Also, if you are on vacation, who cares what you wear? If you are a sports player or a fan of a team that uses bright green as one of its team colors, then you are safe.
Let’s take a closer look at this beautiful range of greens that are available to us:
Chartreuse:
Because chartreuse lies so close to yellow and gets much of its parentage from yellow, it has much of the same exuberant, eye-catching personality as yellow. There are many variations of pure chartreuse (a later color topic), some that lean more toward yellow while others have a bit more green in their makeup. The pure brilliant forms of chartreuse can be changed to suit your needs, simply by whitening, graying, or blackening the color. You can see subtle variations in the leaves above.
Chartreuse is a bright, cheerful color that requires our full attention when used in its purest form. If you use chartreuse as the featured color, you will have a very vibrant outcome. Chartreuse is an excellent accent and in landscape art, it creates wonderful natural highlights.
You can see a beautiful array of chartreuse hues in this closeup of a blossom that is quite different from the chartreuse coloring of leaves in the photo image above..
Yellow-green
Yellow-green is another beautiful, bright warm green. The mossy rocks in this Smoky Mountains waterfall are an example of yellow-green in a natural setting. This green has more turquoise (more about this in a future post) in its makeup than chartreuse, so it’s not quite as attention-getting, but it can still be very eye-catching. Yellow-green can be very luscious, especially when blackened. Gardens, woodlands, and forests are filled with wonderful examples of yellow-green vegetation.
The yellow-green grass in this lake overlooking Mount Rainier offers a visual punch to the scene. It provides spirited warmth when coolness abounds.
Spring Green
Spring green is a lovely green with a hint of warmth to it. It is the green of new grass and early leaves in springtime. Again, as in other colors, this green varies in the amount of warmth it evokes. A spring green that lies closer to yellow-green is warmer than a spring green close to green This parkland scene shows a sampling of spring greens.
Here is a typical glimpse of green leaves at the height of spring. Notice the subtle variations of the spring green leaves. Incorporate subtle differences in value and intensity in your own projects, as you see quite readily in nature. It will enrich your artwork. Here you can see how the subtle variations in the leaf colors add interest and dimensionality.
Green
Green is a beautiful color that is calming and restful. Because of this green’s peaceful nature, its lightened, blackened, and toned hues are the most popular for decorating. The light, softly toned hues of this green are quite restful and make a good backdrop for a calm atmosphere.
The beautiful green leaves in this New Brunswick woodland provide strong color and temperature contrast in this scene.
Blue-green
Blue-green is a luscious refreshing green that is quite restful. This color is very popular in all of its various forms. It evokes a refreshing cooling effect. Notice how different Its visual mood is compared to the warm greens. A softened toned form of this color is sea-foam.
Aqua Green.
Aqua green is a beautiful green that can be seen in pristine mountain lakes and tropical seas and bays. It is joyful in mood and works well in happy, cheerful designs.
This color is transformed into a subtle wintry aqua green when toned. The trees lining the pathway (below) are an example of this coloring. If you walk into the woods or a garden, you may be able to see a wide variety of toned aqua green trees, shrubs, and perennials.
As you can see, the spectrum of green is delightfully diverse. At least one of these greens should appeal to your senses. As mentioned previously, I believe your choice of a featured green sets the tone for your project. If you want a cool, refreshing effect, your choice of green will be much different than if you want a strikingly vibrant hey-look-at-me effect. Think about the mood you want to promote before you begin selecting your colors. Then choose the featured family of green that will give you the best options to make your vision a reality.
Joen
I love green! Your photos are magnificent!!!
Enjoyed your blog post “How Green is Green.”
Many thanks for such an excellent explanation about colours. So glad to have had your blog introduced to me
Chérie
Cherie,
Thanks so much for your comments. I really appreciate them. Please feel free to share the blog information with others. Happy colouring!
Thanks so much. I’m glad you love green too!
What a supberb blog – thank you for sharing your knowledge and inspiration. An Aussie I am – in love with colour of outback regions of Australia. A suggestion for you – would you talk about purple and yellow, perhaps both together & how they impact on each other?
Love the blog and look forward to the projects!
Your blog is a teacher’s dream; beautifully executed, creatively informative and entertaining. Your photos are saturated with rich color examples that exemplify your concepts, while explaining mood psychologies inherent in the hues. Well done my friend!
Wonderful photos and great information. Cannot wait until you visit with us in Illinois next year. Now that will be a great time for all. I am giving the information for your blog to our newsletter chair to include in our Sept issue for sites with insight. Yours certainly qualifies. Thanks again for all the knowledge you pass onto us. It is appreciated.
Good Morning Joen,
Thanks for website. Between the website and your tool, my quilts look better all the time.
Dianne
At times it seems the differences between colors that are next to each other on the color wheel are pretty subtle, e.g. spring green vs. green. The photos are very helpful for visual association. When trying to match colors I have to keep reminding myself that it is indeed a spectrum… it’s possible to have colors that are in-between!
I recently challenged myself to make a quilt out of shades I don’t normally use, od green,muck brown,
and rust for pop. Used your color tool for making the choices. Working outside our comfort zone sometimes gives amazing results it’s now my favorite quilt. Your photos are a great tool for helping see the subtle differences in color.
The first time I meet you you were wearing Green color# 2-13 on your color tool. I remember thinking how well it suited you, that was years ago! Just goes to show you how powerful color is. I think most of us are attracted first to the color then the design in quilts.
Hi Joen,
I really don’t ‘do’ blogs, but you hooked me with green! Beautiful photos, great job.
Rosemary
Thanks, Joen! The color blog is great, and I look forward to future posts — here’s to finding beauty everyday. –Jennie
Greetings Pamela,
Thanks for your kind comments. I will be talking about those in future blogs, both will be addressed separately and together. Thanks for asking.
Thanks so much, Linda! I am so happy you like the blog. I am hoping that it will be worthwhile for people. Feel free to spread the word. Hope to see you in October.
Many thanks, Marcia. BTW, I am looking forward to my trip too. Illinois quilters are so enthusiastic. It’s wonderful! Thanks for sharing the information about this blog.
Good afternoon, Dianne,
I am so glad you like both. Cute comment. I’m sure your quilts are lovely.
Your Blog is so full with information and love the color green. Thanks for sharing with us.
Hi Marina,
You are right. In fact, I will be doing a future posting on this topic. For instance, the pure spring green color that we see on the color wheel is the color that is in the center position within the 15-degree spectrum of pure spring-green. A pure spring green that sits near yellow-green has to be much warmer than the spring green that sits in the center position of the spring green spectrum, and the spring green that sits near pure green. There is a subtle shift of color from one side of the spring-green spectrum to the other side of it. That’s why there are so many variations of pure spring green—or any other pure color for that matter. Thanks, Marina.
Hi Rosemary,
I usually don’t do blogs either, but I am hooked too……because I’m writing this one! So perhaps I am more hooked than you! A year ago I didn’t even understand what a blog was. I changed my attittude about blogs and what was possible in a blog after reading a blogging book that gave wise advice: blog about a topic you know well and stay on topic. After thinking about it, I decided blogging was the best format for sharing my color information. This blog has evolved from a seed of an idea. It’s now in its infancy. I could not have started this without my son David’s technical knowledge, patience, and suppport. He has gotten me out of lots of techie messes. So, I thank you for your support and encouragement. I can’t believe I’m blogging and you can’t believe you’re “doing” blogs. We make a perfect team!
Thanks, Sally.
You wrote: “Yellow-green can be very luscious, especially when blackened”. How should “blackened” be understood in this context? Is it to be set against a very dark contrast like the shadows of the stones in the image of the creek you included, or mixed with black?
Thank you for another interesting lecture on colour, Joen.
Hi Steen,
Wow! How perceptive you are! And, what a great question to have before me.
When I was writing about yellow-green, I was thinking about mixing black paint with yellow-green paint, but as you so well pointed out, the mossy-rock photo illustrates a second way that black can combine with yellow-green to give it a luscious appearance.
In the mossy rock photo, black visually enhances yellow-green, allowing yellow-green to be emphasized more than it would be without black’s presence. Black and yellow-green have become visual partners. Consequently, the sunlit yellow-green mosses placed next to the blackest shadows appear to have a sense of drama about them. They are beautiful—–and dare I say luscious next to the blackened shadows.
Going back to paint…..As black paint is added to yellow-green paint, the color transforms into richly-darkened, warm green hues. Many of these blackened yellow-green hues are quite luscious. Also, they are very difficult to find in fabric.
The adding black to yellow-green by way of paint is totally different from partnering black with yellow-green hues in a design. Both can be luscious. However, with the visual partnering of black and yellow-green, you have the possibility of creating a sense of drama.
Thanks for the question, Steen.
Green, having 6 divisions instead of the 4 in blue, made it much harder to sort my green fabric bin. I also discovered a severe shortage of chartreuse.
Today we drove throughout the beautiful greens of Highway 101 toward Neah Bay. There are certainly more than 6 green divisions in Mother Nature’s green palette but I see she also keeps chartreuse for only those very special little touches.
I love the way you are organizing this blog on color. It allows me to focus on one thing at a time and really develop my own thoughts about it.
Hi Dianne,
You are right about chartreuse. When Mother Nature uses it, she often does it with a tiny but powerful punch! I love the flittering of chartreuse in the woodlands. Today would have been a wonderful day to look at the beautiful greens on Highway 101. If you were able to go past Crescent Lake, that should have been gorgeous with the tree hues reflecting into the water.
The greens you saw today should all be members of one of those six families of green. There are literally hundreds (or perhaps thousands….who’s to say?) of hues that belong to each family. That’s a discussion for another day coming soon (soon is relative). Talk to you again.