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Color, “the property causing visual sensation.”

Have you ever thought of it in that way before? When you look at something and the color causes a sensation or even an emotion. This easily relates to the memory of this time of year for me. The experience of autumn in Michigan or New Jersey when the leaves would change color I would have a calmness and appreciation for beauty would overwhelm me.

This would transition quickly to stress and anxiety when I would see the bright colorful lights and decorations of the holidays take over.

The sadness would set in as the end of another year came and yet an excitement would be instilled with the vision for the future as the colors would change again from the bright to subdued colors of winter.

Most of us just see color; we know it because it is not black, white or even gray. Color is created by the amount of light that is reflected in an object. Think about it — how, when you are out in the dark, the color of things change. For example, it would be hard to say it’s next door to that dark blue building, or the house with the red roof.

Color is something we see everyday. We expect it to be there. We don’t think about it; we just know it when we see it and yes, like many other things, we take it for granted.

Colors, or hues, are used by artists to express their thoughts and feelings resulting in that “visual sensation.”

For artists there are so many terms that are used in conjunction with color; primary, secondary and tertiary colors; warm and cool colors; key color, value and chroma.

Red, yellow and blue are primary colors. They are defined as such because they cannot be mixed from any other color and are mixed together to create other colors.

Secondary colors are orange, green and violet. These are created when two primary colors are mixed together; yellow and red make orange, blue and yellow make green and red and blue make violet.

A tertiary color is a color that is created when you mix one primary with one secondary color.

When you think of warm and cool on Marco you might think of it in terms of the beach; where the sun provides us warmth and the water makes us cool. This same analogy can be used when thinking of colors.

Warm colors are the red, oranges and yellows; the same colors we think of when we think of the sun. Cool colors are green, blues and violets, similar to the reflection of light we see when we look at water making it green or blue.

Living in paradise, we see primarily the blue sky, however, those blues are always changing. One sky never seems exactly the same as the next. This would be the chroma, the intensity of the brightness or dullness of the blue in the sky.

Value is the presence or absence of light. The brightness/dullness, the amount of lightness/darkness continues to support the fact that color is the amount of light that is reflected. On what we might refer to as gray days, there is less light and less brightness so less color.

Living in paradise also provides us with many opportunities to view beautiful sunrises or sunsets. As the sun rises or sets we can see how the colors change. Each one is so different from the other and each day so different from the next. When there is one color that stands out more than the other, like the orange or the violet of the sky, that color is the key color; for artists it is what is referred to as the dominant color in a painting.

Marco Island is a small community. Community is formed by people who share common interests. The Art League is part of our community as well as a community within our community. We all share a love for where we are. You already see what artists see, next time look a bit further and you may find you even think like an artist thinks.

Christine Neal is the executive director of Marco Island’s Center of the Arts. She holds an Associate of Arts Degree in the Liberal Arts with emphasis in the Fine Arts and various certifications and designations in business and the arts. An award winning artist, with 20-plus years in management and sales. Marco Island’s Center for the Arts is located at 1010 Winterberry Drive 239-394-4221 mail@marcoislandart.com.