the colors in the sky
“Bill would be on the roof every night to watch the colors in the sky as soon as the sun was starting to set. . . . Transfixed and absolutely motionless, right hand holding the perpetual cigarette, lips parting to the sun, and himself stirring only to drop it when it burned his fingers.”
—William S. Burroughs, Jr, remembering his father, William S. Burroughs, in Tangier. From Kentucky Ham, 1973.
our ken
“What lies within our ken is but a small part of the universe.”
—John Locke, as quoted in The Pleasures of the Imagination: English Culture in the Eighteenth Century by John Brewer, 1997.
the technicolor breeze
“Lucas, like Clint Eastwood in a tux . . .
Jumps off his trusty steed and shoots the technicolor breeze
Right beside a cactus there on his hands and knees
One too many Pabst Blue Ribbons on top of those green beans”
—the amazing, and often even humorous, Momus. The song Team Clermont, from the album Stars Forever, 1999.
auburn, azure, brown, black, blue, cerise, crimson, cyan, dun, ecru, gray, green, indigo, khaki, maroon, mauve, puce, purple, red, russet, scarlet, sepia, taupe, ultramarine, white, and yellow
“In the English language, there are fewer than thirty words whose major function is to designate a specific color. These include auburn, azure, brown, black, blue, cerise, crimson, cyan, dun, ecru, gray, green, indigo, khaki, maroon, mauve, puce, purple, red, russet, scarlet, sepia, taupe, ultramarine, white, and yellow—they are all defined in the dictionary as either a specific location on the spectrum or with the phrase ‘as having the color of’ or “being the color” followed by the names of objects bearing the color. . . .
There are also colors that are named after specific objects—animals, vegetables, or minerals; their names, having been in use for a long time, have come to be regarded, when used in the proper context, primarily as colors. Within this group are such names as beige, buff, lavender, lilac, orange, pink, sienna, umber, rust, turquoise, silver, gold, emerald, sapphire, and fawn. And some of these names have lost their original meaning and now stand for the color alone. However, even with this list, the number of color names remains fairly small. Therefore we use a variety of linguistic devices to extend it.
1. Combining names for a single color that has two hue qualities, e.g., yellow-green, blue-violet, yellow-orange
2. Limiting names by the use of a modifier denoting lightness, e.g., dark blue, dark red, light red, light blue, light green
3. Limiting names by the use of a modifier referring to the degree of color saturation, e.g., dull red, bright red, dull green, bright green
4. Adding the suffix ish, e.g., yellowish, greenish, reddish
5. Using such descriptive adjectives as mellow, harsh, garish, or subtle”
—Joseph H. Krause, The Nature of Art, 1969.
the black chalk often referred to as Italian or black stone
“By the fifteenth century, paper mills had been established in Europe to meet the demands created by the increase in printing that resulted from the development of movable type. It was the availability of paper and the use in Italy, at about the same time, of the black chalk often referred to as Italian or black stone that brought about the birth of drawings as we know it today. The chalk, a soft natural carboniferous slate that could be cut into strips, gave to drawing a freedom and tempo that was not easily attained with the more traditional pen and ink or metal points. In addition to black chalk, red chalk (originally, hematite), ranging in color from a violet red to an orange red and often referred to by its French name, sanguine, became popular in the sixteenth century. White chalk (steatite or gypsum) was used either to highlight black- or red-chalk drawings or to prepare the tinted grounds on which the drawings often appeared.”
—Joseph H. Krause, The Nature of Art, 1969.
a quality of “blackness”
“As far as we know, the first scientific contemplation of color began with the work of Aristotle (384–322 BCE), who recorded that light was a necessary component of ordinary color perception. It was his contention that all objects impose a quality of “blackness” on the white light that falls on them and that it is the qualitative aspect of this blackness, in relation to the white light, that makes for color differences. He considered the blackness to be a form of contamination that blocks out the colors not seen. Aristotle’s theory stood until the seventeenth century and the beginning of scientific inquiry.”
—Joseph H. Krause, The Nature of Art, 1969.
a composition of all Colours
“. . . in all whites produced by Nature, there . . . [is] a mixtue of all sorts of Rays, and by consequence a composition of all Colours.”
—Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1727), from his Opticks, or A Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Infractions and Colours of Light.
wherever mood or the manipulation of space is important
“Architecturally, color operates in conjunction with light and surface quality. Dark, warm colors plus low polish and low light create a more inviting environment than do bright, cold colors coupled with hard surfaces and high gloss. Color and light are traditionally used to set the stage, not only in the theater but wherever mood or the manipulation of space is important, because the size of an architectural area can be perceptually increased or decreased by varying color and light.”
—Joseph H. Krause, The Nature of Art, 1969.
The north pole is white
“The north pole is white. The south pole is black. The equator is a circuit of middle reds, yellows, greens, blues, and purples. Parallels above the equator describe this circuit in lighter values, and parallels below trace it in darker values. The vertical axis joining black and white is a neutral scale of gray values, while perpendiculars to it are scales of Chroma. Thus, our color notions may be brought into orderly relation by the color sphere. Any color describes its color quality, light and strength, by its place in the combined scales of Hue, Value, and Chroma.”
—Albert Munsell, describing his color sphere in A Color Notation, 11th edition, 1961.
my lighting had changed
“When I began . . . I believed that two canvases would suffice, one for gray weather and one for sun. At that time I was painting some haystacks that had excited me and that made a magnificent group, just two steps from here. One day, I saw that my lighting had changed. I said to my stepdaughter: ‘Go to the house, if you don’t mind, and bring me another canvas!’ She brought it to me, but a short time afterward it was different again. ‘Another! Still another!’ And I worked on each one only when I had my effect, that’s all.”
—Claude Monet, on his haystack series, as quoted in Monet by William C. Seitz, 1960.