Click the links for a look back at the main reds used by most artists, for a bit of history and a few tips.
Wallet Friendly Fire-engine Red
The Invisible Color of Harmonious War
Tag: Magenta
Colorful Fridays–The Invisible Color of Harmonious War
“We never really perceive what color is physically.” Joseph Albers (from The Painter’s Keys)
Try searching the color spectrum for magenta. It’s not there. The eye can’t see it. The true compliment of green can’t be found on the color spectrum. If the eye can’t see magenta, where did it come from? The answer can be found in the aftermath of war. This color deriving from war is also purported to be the color of harmony and balance. Contradictory to say the least! This non-color has a colorful past and present.
The name for the red-purple color known as “magenta” came from the Italian town of the same name. A particularly bloody battle where France and Italy fought the Austrians in 1859 took place near the Italian town of Magenta. The blood-soaked ground turned a reddish purple color after the war. This same color is now the center of a new, though bloodless, war.
It seems Telecom giant, T-Mobile has trademarked the color magenta. The T-Mobile trademark information lists “the color magenta” in with its other company trademarks. A subsidiary of AT&T, has a logo with a magenta hue that T-Mobile felt resembled their magenta hue so closely that the response must be a legal battle. T-Mobile has declared war on AT&T for the use of magenta by its subsidiary, AIO. The lawsuit is working its way through the courts. Hopefully, some thoughtful judge will say a color can’t be the sole property of one company, or anybody else for that matter.
As the new war carries on over magenta, one website is proclaiming magenta the color of “universal harmony and emotional balance.” Empower Yourself with Color Psychology also says of magenta, “This is a color to create harmony and balance.” I wonder if anyone has told this to T-Mobile?
How can a company trademark a color that doesn’t exist? Good question. Liz Eliot for Biotele.com explains how the eye sees or doesn’t see magenta in an article titled, “Magenta ain’t no color.” The eye games in the article demonstrate the process of fooling the eye to see magenta. The article also explains how magenta is the actual true compliment of green, not the red that is routinely taught. According to Eliot, on the color spectrum, the eye does not pick up any color that resembles the reddish purple of magenta.
Colorlovers.com tells us that T.Mobile does not own magenta’s use by artists, only by those in the telecom industry. Playing with how the eye sees or doesn’t see magenta can make for some interesting painting. When magenta is not inciting war, it is introducing “harmony and balance.” With magenta as the star, perhaps one can paint balanced battle paintings of harmonious wars.
For more on how the eye sees magenta, follow these links:
Dr. Anne Marie Helmenstine explains magenta in: “What is the wavelength of magenta?”
Wimp.com explains it in a video demonstration: “Color mixing: the mystery of magenta.”
Sensational Color has more on the history of the name: http://www.sensationalcolor.com/color-meaning/color-words-phrases/origin-magenta-860#.UsYu3yjnt0A
Colorful Fridays—The Rosy Red Siblings
“Red is obviously such a stimulating color, it has so many connotations.” P.J. Harvey
Quinacridone Red and its Quin siblings, Rose and Magenta, cannot call up an intriguing history. No ancient minerals or archaic farming practices discovered these beautiful bluish reds. No Old Masters can be credited with having discovered this gloriously rich red family. All the credit goes to a wonderful unknown modern-day scientist who mixed some organic chemicals up in a lab and came out with these lovely, fully transparent, lightfast, nontoxic reds. Many a twentieth century botanical artist would like to pay homage to this brilliant chemist.
The “quins” are the colors of romance. Though rather strong, they are still the reds of orchids and carnations. The “quins” are the pinks of rose petals. They are the sunlight through a stained glass window. All of this romantic pinky, lavender, rosy color surely must come from the ground up petals of wildflowers gathered at midnight on a full moon. Wrong! They come from a boring test tube in a sterile lab located in the windowless basement of a huge chemical compound. (Actually, we don’t know where they are made today, but the windowless basement sounded pretty good).
Layering transparent glazes with the “quins,” according to Chris Cozen on his blog, “tend not to turn muddy or grey.” The Daniel Smith website states Naples Yellow can be added to Quinacridone Red to create nice peachy shades. Williamsburg Oils says Quinacridone Red can be used to make the “cleanest pinks, flesh tones and violets.” And who would want muddy pinks?? Okay, sometimes a muddy pink is needed in a painting for delicate shadows. In that case, go with the Cadmiums.
Daniel Smith demonstrates a wash with Quinacridone Red: