Notes on Color
“What he wanted was colors which would appear stronger and clearer in artificial light. He did not particularly care if they looked crude or insipid in daylight for he lived most of his life at night.”
— "Against Nature" by J.K. Huysmans
Wittgenstein says, "We could paint semi darkness in semi-darkness and the ‘right lighting” of a picture could be semi darkness…"
For architects, interior and product designers, color is something you specify. It’s a material that can be purchased in a tube or a can. There are charts and maps of color and numbers that are assigned to each variation in hue and saturation.
For lighting designers (and poets perhaps) color is an experience, and a variable one at that…
To get at the right combination of color and light, describe the activity:
"I want my studio to be filled with light like Northern daylight at noon."
"I want my makeup lighting to match what I'll look like under candle light."
"I want my room to feel like I am inside a rose."
"I want my painting lit to mimic the light the painting was made under."