The colour red

I’ve been reading a lot about colour recently. In my past works, I’ve predominantly focused on other tones, blues, pinks, greens. However, red has always been a colour I’ve sidestepped, using it only as an accent but never giving it the dominant place it deserves.

I began to unpack red. My work is deeply invested in conflicting ideas: life and death, chaos and solitude, stillness and busyness. Red, perhaps more than any other colour, embodies these opposing forces – anger and love, chaos and stillness, death and life.

So why, then, have I avoided focusing on red until now? After reading James Fox’s The World According to Colour: A Cultural History, I found myself rethinking my current attitude to colour.

"Red conjures a sense of danger, a warning. It signifies blood, life, and love. It’s materialistic, stimulating, and suffused with the intensity of anger. It led Roman soldiers into battle. Various shades of red evoke different phases of life – love, happiness, passion, power, excitement, anger, turmoil, tragedy, cruelty, revenge, war, sin, and shame. These ideas may seem separate, but in many ways, they are one and the same. Red may be the revolutionist’s flag, or streets may run red with the blood of rioters. Yet, it’s also used in church rituals, symbolising sacrifice. Whether blood is spilled on the battlefield in a noble cause or drips from the assassin’s dagger, blood still runs red. Love, too, gently warms the blood. The delicacy or strength of red’s shade can suggest different types of love, from purity to licentiousness, from deceit to selfish ambition."

On a basic level, we all know red symbolises death, blood, and love. But when you dissect it fully its shades, tones, and hues – it becomes something much bigger. It becomes the entire spectrum of human existence: the good, the bad, and the ugly.

If I’m being entirely honest, I’ve found red intimidating. It’s shocking, aggressive, sexy, and loving all at once. How could I possibly use it effectively, when it signifies such complex and enormous themes? Similar to my reflections on how emotions coexist within a painting, red holds opposite emotions within it. But perhaps these opposing forces are closer together than we think. Psychologists have shown that anger and love share similar brain circuitry; both are intense emotions that can intertwine.

Perhaps, then, the reason I’ve avoided red is not because it’s unworkable, but because it’s so intense. It demands attention, it stirs deep emotions, and it pushes boundaries. Yet, shouldn’t this be precisely why I need to embrace it in my work? It is the colour of life’s intensity, and it’s precisely that depth and complexity that makes it a compelling force for expression.