Color Theory

This year we’re learning more about color, and how to incorporate color in our garden designs. We’re using Penelope Hobhouse’s book, Color in Your Garden, as a guide on our quest. As always, we need some terminology to helps us communicate, and some basic information to help us understand. Don’t worry – I’m providing an overly simplistic treatment of the subject (feel free to seek other sources if you want to learn more about the art and science of color theory)!

Color wheel (painted by Jason Quisenberry)

Since we are “painting with light” in the garden, our color theory focuses on light rather than pigment. Some useful concepts:

• A white surface reflects all light rays; a black surface absorbs all light rays; and a gray surface absorbs and reflects light rays equally.
• Light transmits color in different wavelengths. Light transmits blue in short wavelengths, green and yellow in middle wavelengths, and red in long wavelengths.
• The blue, yellow, and red cones of the human eye respond to the wavelengths, and color is perceived in the brain. The wavelengths overlap to transmit many shades of light, and the brain can perceive many shades of color.

A color wheel depicts the primary colors (blue, yellow, and red), and secondary colors (green, orange, and purple), and provides a language to describe the colors. Some useful terms borrowed from the art world:

• A hue is pure color with no white, black or gray –  primary colors are hues.
• A value is the color’s luminosity – the difference between lightness and darkness.
• Color values indicate a color’s tint (graded toward white), or shade (graded toward black).
• Intensity is a color’s range from dull to bright color.

We will try to use these terms and concepts as we explore the topic of color in the garden.