Green & purple, and simply irresistible eyeliner

This months colours for the Colour Challenge were lavender & green. And some texture thrown in for an extra challenge. When I did my journal page, I somehow had "lilac" in mind, rather than "lavender", and only relised it after I had finished it. But then lavender and lilac are a sort of purple, and it's all pretty similar, and anyway, after having done some research into green and purple (which happen to be my two favourite colours), and particularly the colour purple and all it's variations in a blog post almost a year ago, I don't really know anymore which shade is what.

So here's my colour study page about green and purple (or whatever you want to call it) for February. I love bamboo, and painted a lot of them during a green/bamboo phase a few years ago. The pansy really was just the first purple flower that came to my mind which wasn't too challenging to paint. I added some coarse and grainy modelling paste at the bottom of both pages to add some texture, but it doesn't show very well in the photo. I also added some stamps, butterflies and grass, for texture. The colours didn't come out so well in the picture, it looks much fresher on the page really.

Purple is the result of subtractive colour mixing of red and blue, it's complementary colour is yellow. It's geometric form is a combination of circle and square, its ranges from 450-396nm on the psecturm. At around 1500 BC the Phoenicians discovered how to extract purple dye from the purple murex (a kind of snail). Today, there are almost no lightfast purple pigments. Lilac and lavender are more popular than the powerful and rather unpopular purple, especially in older age. Purple is a difficult colour full of opposites and a range of different connotations. In astrology, purple is the colour of aquarius (maybe that's why I find it attractive!?).

Its connotations are: self-determination, (spiritual and secular) power, melancholy, imagination, connection, lust, height, eternity, depth, magic, modesty. Purple can give a feeling of narrowness, of distance, but it's darker shades can also have a calming effect, while lighter shades can be stimulating, and even intrusive. Introvert people favour purple because they can relate to the colour's tension between two opposite poles.

Green sits between yellow and blue, it's complementary colour is red. It's geometric form is a combination of circle and trapezium, it ranges form 550nm (lime green) to 500nm (turquoise) on the spectrum. Most green pigments today are based on chromium, many pigments such as verdigris are highly poisonous, and a whole range of greens are poisonous if the pigments aren't manufactured synthetically. The colour was immensely popular at the end of the 18th century, when many houses and rooms were painted and/or decorated with (poisonous) green. In German, ther are over 40 shades of green ranging between yellow green and blue green.

Its connotiations are: life, nature, harmony, paradise, trust, confidence, hope, vital energy, exuberance, growth, new beginning, jealousy, spring, poison, fertility, new love, balance, immaturity. Green is calming and balancing, harmonious, it strenghtens self confidence and self esteem. It especially appeals to people who are nervous and restless.

Some random (and quite interesting) facts from my little, rather esotheric, colour book:

• men are attracted to women who wear purple, but also fear that they are liable to hysteria and have a strong tendency for individuality

• if you have brown eyes, green eyeshadow will make you irresistible
  
  As it happens, I just bought some green eyeliner for a change two weeks ago. I have only tried it out at home, so far, and thought that it looked rather strange, really. But I'll get it out of the drawer again now, and give it another try. Irresistible. Hmmmm...