Colour symbolism and evoking emotions

Red is often described as a hot, fiery, passionate colour. Blue is often described as cool and cold and spatial. Yellow and blue are sometimes referred to as dynamic and exciting. Browns and greens can be called natural, calm colours.

Artists often use certain colours to evoke particular emotions or create a certain type of atmosphere in an artwork. For example the colour red is often used to convey energy, war, danger, anger, passion, desire and love.

Think about how colours can be used to help convey an emotion in your artwork. Remember that the use of colour can evoke different emotions to different people - this is often due to cultural differences or personal experiences. Look at the animation below as a starting point that you can build upon. Click on the colour buttons at the top to see the colour associations:

This website from the Walker Center of Art tries to help students understand the nature of art. Take a look at key question 6: 'Does art express emotions?' and try out the activity: schools.walkerart.org/swita/

Colour theory

Now you have learnt about how artists make use of colour to convey emotions in their artwork have a go at the activity below. Use your knowledge of colour theory to describe the mood of each artwork featured.

Useful links

Colour in motion: An animated and interactive experience of colour communication and symbolism.www.mariaclaudiacortes.com

The colour experience: Extensive exploration of colour symbolism, and the applications of science and technology in colour.www.colour-experience.org