Feel good colour
Walking into my friend Sonia’s garden through an old wooden gate, with tall, moss-covered banks either side under towering beech trees, I remember being stopped in my tracks by an all-encompassing wave of tranquillity.
Everything was soft, nothing jarred, the colours of both flowers and foliage seemed to flow one into another. There were no sharp contrasts and, though the setting accounted in part for the mood, it was the harmonious colour that created the sense of complete peace.
Sometimes colour, or more specifically the use of colour, is not considered or is even completely accidental. But when it is used deliberately it can be the most important element in establishing a mood, in making us feel relaxed, excited, energised or galvanised.
Walk into a garden full of cannas, vibrant dahlias, vivid gladioli and there’s no way you’re going to relax. The opposite happens: you feel stimulated, raring to go. We respond to different colours in different ways, but it is the combination of those colours that establishes a mood. Yellow chimes with blue; it is comfortable and easy. But yellow alongside fiery oranges and reds excites.
