It is important to know this kind of information before choosing the colors to paint.
by Rodrigo Infante Tirado*
Colors in general are present in art, painting, architecture, decoration, advertising, clothing, politics and religions, and today even in meals; they transmit codices, sensations, messages, taboos, prejudices, which we obey many times without realizing it, because they have the secret of those codes.
The colors are whimsical, whimsical and pilgrim, and it is not easy to enclose them in categories although we try to do it for comfort; How many are there? Aristotle accepted six, but Isaac Newton defined them as seven, and for this reason this number was decreed as official, but we always speak of six, although there are almost infinite, and they are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet; white is the optical mixture of all of them, and black is called the absence of light or color, which corresponds to the mixture of all the colors of the paintings, unlike what happens with light.
The children were taught that at the end of the rainbow there was a treasure, and the truth is that there is the trunk of colors, which reveals our likes and dislikes, our desires, our fears, our thoughts, and tells us great things about the world and ourselves.
Colors have been developed and offered through paintings from the most remote temples, being them the messengers of colors from a lifetime. Colors and paintings are inherent to human beings, so there is presence of them 35,000 years ago in the Cave of Chauvet in France, 40,000 years in Altamira in Spain, and 1,500 years in Teotihuacán in Mexico, where you can see paintings with different colors, which have been until today's times by the absence of natural light.
Today the paint factories offer the colors in primers with thousands of them, where once chosen you have to place them in different paints, depending on what you want to achieve with them, whether to protect or decorate. In these primers there is information regarding the Stability of colors in the open and sunlight, there are values on the Luminosity <LRV>, and information on transparency or opacity, such as yellows and vermilions.
Colors have significance and interact with us, generating various sensations that we can not fail to perceive, because the skin is an antenna receiving complete solar radiation,
Below I will describe something about the colors, which will help us choose them to paint the interior and exterior of our homes, and the workplaces where we spend much of the day.
White
Its wavelength within the electromagnetic spectrum is between 400 and 700 nanometers, and this width is called visible spectrum, which corresponds to the mixture of all colors, as well as black, which is the absence of color, for this reason black and white are very harmonious, and are combined in nature in beautiful animals, such as seagulls that are the princesses of the sea, black-necked swans, princes of rivers and lakes, as well as zebras, and the beautiful panda bear, where the combination has a perfect balance.
Due to its great luminosity, it is used in paints for road demarcation, due to the contrast with the gray of the concrete, and with the black of the asphalt. In pedestrian crossings it is used in combination with yellow and black, to give it greater visibility and danger.
In the paintings it is the most popular color, there are several types of whites, which are called Winter White, English White, German White, White Mist, consisting of whites with small amounts of black, ochre yellow, green, and vermilion, which in the USA is called Off White.
Precisely, in the United States it is the color that leads the luxury cars, which represent 25%, and those of silver color 22%, and the best-selling t-shirts or t-shirts, are those of white color.
Because of its association with cleaning, it is the favorite color of hospitals and the cotonas of doctors and chemists. The Egyptians and Romans found in it the symbol of purity.
According to psychologists they help mental clarity, stimulate people to take off difficulties, and evoke the purification of thoughts.
On the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, which corresponds to the day of forgiveness, the Rabbi wears white, to reinforce the relationship between humans and God.
White teeth are a longing of all people, because it represents good health.
The white color of milk has meanings about food and the creation of life, for this reason it is the preferred color of initiations in African ceremonies. Its white color is due to the emulsion of milk fat in water.
It was for a long time the color of mourning in the Middle Ages, and today it is in some Eastern cultures, where people dress in white as a sign of mourning, because white is associated with death, because when winter begins and the landscape turns white because of the snow, flowers die, which are the princesses of colors, plants, and insects.
Most of the sheets are white, and in addition to indicating cleanliness, it induces a pleasant sleep.
White is the color of innocence and candidness, as with the tale of Snow White, which is corrupted by biting the red apple.
In some religions, such as catholic, it describes heavenly creatures with the color white, such as archangels, angels, and cherubim, and in the Bible it depicts the robes of Jesus and the Virgin.
In poetry it is said that a "verse is white", when it does not rhyme with the other verses, but keeps the rhythm with the words.
It is said that I have a blank mind, when we have nothing in it.
It is the most popular color on flags, because it represents the truce.
The artist Wassily Kandinsky <1866-1944>, said that white corresponds to silence, and for this reason it can be filled with possibilities.
There are many shades of white, and Inuit women <squimal> can distinguish up to 7 sub-tones of white, which correspond to the different characteristics of ice, which tells them about hardness, softness, antiquity, transparency, and other characteristics that advance the group safely over it.
Leaving a "blank vote" means that other people decide for us.
White is the brightest color, because it reflects a large amount of light, for this reason it allows to reduce the luminaires to achieve the same amount of light in the rooms.
The white color of the ice is associated with cold, and is due to the fact that there is air inside, and when it loses it, as in the millenary ice, it acquires transparency along with a slight celestial color.
It is the official residence of the presidents of the United States, and is called the White House.
White with black are harmonious because it comes from the mixture of all colors, for this reason it is harmonious in elegant clothing.
In the World Cup in Germany, in 1974, a soccer ball with the colors black and white debuted for the first time, which was designed by Adidas, and called it Telstar to this day, and in that year also began color television.
It is the color of balloons and tubes that contain oxygen in hospitals and industries.
People with very white skin, such as Albinos, do not have good sun resistance like browns, and they burn very easily.
As for the colors of cars globally, White is believed to rank 3rd, with 16%, after black occupying second place with 23%.
Violet
Its wavelength in the electromagnetic spectrum is between 320 and 400 nanometers.
In nature, Murex Snails and some mollusks secrete a violet liquid, which was used to make inks to dye paper and fabrics, it is also in the tunas cardonas of San Luis de Potosí, and in the precious stones called Hematite. In flowers it is a scarce color, and is found in the famous flowers that bear his name.
In paints, it is usually a color of little stability to sunlight, and uncommon in its use.
Legend has it that this color was discovered by the dog of Melkart, God of the Phoenician dyers, who already used it in the year 1,500 BC.C. to dye fabrics and silks.
In medieval times in Europe, they obtained it by mixing red pigments with blues, and sometimes reds with traces of black.
Violet represents the planet Jupiter, by the color of its rings, as well as the precious stone called amethyst.
There is a debate between the color violet and purple, with violet being closest to blue, while purple is closer to red; it is associated with luxury, and for this reason it is used in the wrappings of fine chocolates, as well as in the vestments of royalty and high church officials, often calling cardinals "cardinals" as "cardinals", like the high priests described in the Bible.
Justinian, Byzantine emperor, reserved violet for the scrolls of official documents, as well as for some gospels.
In Japan, violet clothing means wealth and social position, while in Iran, when the sun or moon acquires a violet tone, it is believed that there will be a fact of blood, and in Hinduism it represents the seventh chakra, through which the divine light of the universe enters.
The color violet is mentioned in the Iliad and the Odyssey, and in the poems of Sappho of Lesvos, and in some tragedies of Aeschylus, where color signifies divine light.
Violet as an "ointment" was used in the past as a medicine to heal burns and skin damage.
In 2003, a purple frog was discovered in India, which is in extinction, and is the only place where it lives, being the only animal of that color. There are also jellyfish and very deep algae that have the violet color.
The only nation that used violet in its flag was the Second Spanish Republic.
The palest dye of the violet color is called Lavender, in honor of the beautiful aromatic plant that bears its name, from which one of the first colonies whose name was famous was obtained.
In Chile, Michel Bachelet hands the government in Congress to Sebastián Piñera, with a Violet dress, to represent the power and importance of her, in turn, Sebastián Piñera wears a tie of the same color.
The State Defense Council was painted Violet in its beginning, when a woman was president of it, because it means power and importance, today that it is in charge of a man, it is Beige. The same happened with the first Jumbo in the Mall Alto Las Condes, which was painted Violet today is also Beige.
Note: The second of three parts of this article will talk about the colors blue and green.
* Rodrigo Infante Tirado holds a degree in Chemistry from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. You can write to the email: [email protected]
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