The greatest question I've heard...

Warm light, winter night, shadow and snow. Look at the colours...

I recently got a great letter and I love these great letters and want to share with you what comes from them, oh the beloved question I must think about, is there any greater gift?

Dear Wanda,

I'm looking at the colors, which clearly work, but I can't tell you why they work or, in contrast, what would be jarring. Why do the orange and fuscia work together, and why does the sad little green in the lower left corner fit in with those other peppy colors? It gave me an idea for a series that could be useful. (The title "Why This Works" comes to mind.) I'm not expecting a personal answer from you, just passing along an idea.

I said:

I want to answer you!

Orange and fuschia are the most loving of partners as they are sisters, only red separates them in the warm family.

The sad little green acting in the necessary role of the quiet receding aunt (neutral opposite) from the other side of the tracks (cool). Every family needs one.

It makes everybody else in the family seem all the more important! LOL.

I think your idea is WONDERFUL.

I see people really want to know how to grasp color. I love to talk about it. As a matter of fact about twice a month I take a painting and talk about the very thing on my blog. I call them "let's look at this " You might like to read them, just go to www.wandaworks.ca, the link to my blog is there.

No other subject I have EVER came across including money and religion and politics has ire been raised so quickly and so vehemently and without intelligence as the discussion of colour.

We are so ignorant of our own notions about colour, so riddled with improper terminology, so confubbled and focused on what is not important we are missing the rainbow by a mile!

As with everything you have to start with your preconcieved notions and air those out. ie do you even know what a dark looks like, do you have any, would you use it if you did?

Of course humans being human don't want this. It takes reflection discomfort and hard work.

To start to learn why something works or not in the colour department you must first know thyself!

Horrible isn't it?

Find out what you are, daughter of darkness, sister of the light.... are you a fence sitter. What is light, dark, where does any given colour sit on the saturation scale, is it almost a 10% gray blue or is it a 100% brilliant blue?

Is it warm?

Dull is not always dark, bright is not always light...

When we recognize and become a diagnostician and can read a colour like House reads a patient, looking for all the signs, wonders and influences, we will then hold all the colour power possible we crave.

Interesting isn't it?

I've already started the work of enriching people's colour power through free online classes group in The Welcome Mat.

I would welcome you and encourage you to do them.

12 years ago I started hooking, 10 years ago I became an instructor, 6 years ago I started refining, grasping and executing my own colour usage from a place of control not happenstance. I still have miles to travel. But I'd love to have you along as a companion.

Can't wait to hear what you say! I want to use part of your question anonymously and my answer with personal things excerpted for my blog please dear, you asked one of the most important questions I've ever heard.

Wanda

This brings me right back to making mistakes. You gotta play, you gotta fall down, you gotta bleed a little, get gravel in your elbow, grass stains on your knees. It hurts, but the freedom of running full tilt boogie towards what you want to grasp, eyes on the prize, man that is beyond great.

If you desire to learn more about colour you can only do that by learning first what your long held beliefs are. Once you know that you can amend them to become your tools instead of your stumbling blocks. It is a new way to think about colour. Looking at a colour wheel to provide insight into colour use is like looking at darkness to discover the light, a desert to discover the condition of water.

You need first look at yourself. Isn't that a pisser?