We just repainted our house. The painter and I quickly agreed on a beautiful rusty red for the front door. The color fit perfectly with the rest of the house. But when the red went on and I walked up to the new front door, it just didn’t feel right. I’d forgotten to do the “feel test.” Have you ever gotten dressed in the morning in something that looks just fine, that you’ve worn many times before, but that didn’t feel right on this particular day? Somehow it didn’t match your mood?
What colors make you look good? That’s one question. What colors make you feel good? That’s a whole other matter.
Scientists have discovered that some colors actually make our body temperature rise while other colors physically cool us off. No wonder we call the red-orange-yellow part of the color spectrum “warm colors” and the blue-green-purple range “cool colors.” They actually have that physical effect on us.
The post-Impressionist artists – Van Gogh, Gauguin, Seurat and their friends – used different colors to depict different moods. Seurat filled his painting of a circus in Paris with reds, oranges, and yellows to convey joy and gaiety.
 |
| In The Circus, Georges Seurat used light shades and warm colors to convey a sense of fun and liveliness. |
I repainted our front door a forest green. The red may have been more stylish, but the green soothes me every time I come home and walk through the door.
