the principle of complementary colours played an important role in my art "education", way-back-when in high school, and more recently in painting classes. the effect that one hue can have on another never ceases to amaze me, and the drama unfolds just as intensely in a photograph as it does in adjacent sweeps of pigment.
the combination of red and green is especially charismatic. i react almost physically to images like this one by maziar and this one by rannie, and am arrested mid-footfall by decors like the postered wall above, or the rickety ships a few days back.
blue and orange, juxtaposed, stir me the same way. they are impressive on their own; as a team, they are exhilarating.
but yellow and purple? i went way back into my photo files: all i could find were pictures of pansies.
perhaps someone else has the sublime example?
i share your fetish for color combos, lynn, so now you'll have me digging thru my photos:) if i find any good yellow/purple examples i'll post it. the only one i know of is also a pansy pic. drat!
ReplyDeletethese are both lovely, bright, and cheery! hurray for juxtaposed colors!
Nice photos, nothing makes photographs have an upbeat mood more than wonderful color.
ReplyDelete~xlnt color and content (again!)~
ReplyDeleteGreat I love that top photo. It would make a great desktop image on my mac = )
ReplyDeletethe top photo is an arresting image, that i stared at it and eventually saw you (and a passerby) in the reflection of the green image. this, while adjusting to just worn contact lenses after wearing glasses for so long. (so the contacts work after all!).
ReplyDeletebeautiful!
I am always amazed by the characterization as 'complimentary,' since they can be so jarring. There's a club in Brooklyn which celebrates its Mexicanity with bold reds and greens, and the gaeity of the juxtaposition is there, but I wouldn't call it 'complementary.' And Orange and Blue? My school colors, but the jarring leads me to joy, certainly not to any kind of peace.
ReplyDeleteRE purple and yellow: My thoughts went to Florida A&M university. Purple and Yellow are its colors, and they have a heck of a marching band. In fact, they were the =sole= American representative in Paris for the bicentennial, and they were asked, as an American representative, to play only James Brown songs. (This wasn't a problem, since JB was a big part of their repertoire.) Perhaps if you did a Google image search on the Florida A&M Rattlers band that might lead you somewhere?
i have so many yellow and red but not purple... btw, that color scheme link is one of my "favorite" bookmarks. :-)
ReplyDeleteas a black and white photographer with a frequent hunger for colours i loved this images and learned a lot from this accompaning words
ReplyDeletethanks for that!
when are you leaving for spain?
both photos are wonderful and well serving as examples for the use of complementary colours.
ReplyDeleteemese used to have a great daylily shot on her site. it had purple petals and a bright yellow interior...
ReplyDelete