THE COLOUR WHEEL

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31124, 29 July 1966, Page 6

THE COLOUR WHEEL

Nowadays considerable! thought Is given to interior! decorating as colour charts’ and experts are consulted,! shades are compared and! selections are reappraised before the final decision.

A similar game can be play-j ed with plants, particularly! annuals, which can provide! the willing gardener with endless opportunities to set his section ablaze with a riot of colour. But first it pays to become conversant with the technique of arranging colours so that they do not' give the beholder the giddy impression that he is gazing at a mess of spilled paints. The primary function of colour is that it must be pleasing to the eye. Consultation of the colour wheel, which accompanies this article, provides a good guide for obtaining satisfactorycombinations. Blue, red and yellow are the primary colours, and green, orange and purple are the secondaryones. Warm colours are orange, red and yellow. Blue, green and violet are cool colours. From the colour wheel it can be seen that a warm colour is always opposite a cool colour, and those colours opposite one another on the wheel are known as complementary or contrasting colours. Warm colours, being closely related on the wheel, can be used together in vivid colour combinations and are best

used in a sequence as. for instance, a graduation from red to white. However, to achieve the desired effect it is necessary to go from the one colour to the other with the inclusion of several intermediate ones, and not in one or two bounds. This could be achieved by going from red to scarlet to orange, to orange yellow, to yellow, to pale yellow, to cream and finally to pure white.

It should be noted, before; : going any further, that there (is no prescribed ruling conI cerning what colours must be ! used, or how many shades, ; cool or warm, complementary ’or otherwise. That is really I a matter of personal taste ’which may or may not agree I with the common concept. It ’ is worth remembering, ■ though, that the smaller the area the fewer warm colours you can use, and the shorter i the sequence that can be i developed. When you have decided on ■ the colour which you want to use decide on the shade which ’is to dominate. The darker or more intense the colour i the more it will show up and dominate the scene. For this i reason you should not use too ■ much of the darkest shade. In : order to obtain more balance, -because of this dominating ! colour factor the number of i plants used for each succeeding colour shade graduation •i should be increased by about ‘one third.

I When planning the layout) of colours for the border! (keep the strongest or darkest! ! shades preferably to the' centre or sides, but avoid) j too much variety where it i i might add confusion. ■ There are ways, too, of depriving the most, from the | individual colours themselves. One of the most effective ways ’of obtaining colour contrast is by using the same shade of colour opposite. Equally effecl five is the pairing of a dark I shade of one colour with a | light shade of another. But care must be taken to avoid having too many striking contrasts as they can be upsetting. Careful selection of colours can create various illusions. An expanse of strong warm colours at the back can give a foreshortening appearance. Depth can be given to small 'areas by a predominance of cool colours. The Colour Wheel is shown in the diagram. The primary colours.—Red. yellow, blue. Examples: salvia, zinnia, delphinium resi pectively. The secondary colours.— ) Orange, green. violet, i Examples: marigold, foliage, 'asters respectively. ■ I The warm colours.—red, | orange, yellow; best used in | sequence.

’ The coo] colours.—Violet, ’blue, green; most effective as ■ contrasts to warm colours.