1) White
“The white canvas – it’s like a layer of dust that covers up the real painting. It’s just a matter of cleaning it. I have a little brush to clear away the blue, another for the red, and another for the green. And when I have finished cleaning, the picture is all there. “
Georges Braque (1882 – 1963), French artist and sculptor, representative of late Impressionism and Cubism
2) Yellow
“I was pleased with myself when I discovered that sunlight, for example, could not be reproduced, but that I had to represent it by some other means … by color.”
Paul Cezanne (1839 – 1906), French painter, made the connection between Impressionism and Cubism
3) Red
“In the red forest that blanketed the earth like a see of roses, when time sang with the voice of the earth mother, when the tides of time, in rising, swelled, full of life, when milky breasts flowed endlessly, and it was the beginning, and life reflected the blood – red day, and I was new, and I came into love … “
Chantal Chawaf (1943 -), French writer
4) Violet
“I see the red flag outside my window; the shadow, in fact, appears violet and dusky to me; it has an orangish glow, but why is not there any green? First of all because red needs to have hints of green, but also because of the presence of orange and violet, two tones that introduce yellow and blue, which make green. “
Eugene Delacroix (1798 – 1863), French painter, representative of Romanticism
5) Green
“Green: said of many things which have green in them. People speak of an evergreen oak because it is green all the time. And certain cabbages are called green cabbages because their leaves do not whiten like those of white cabbages.”
Antoine Furetiere (1619 – 1688), From his “Dictionnaire universel” – “Universal Dictionary”, the publications of which caused his expulsion from the Academie Francaise;
French scholar, writer and lexicographer
7) Blue
“The man bent over his guitar,
A shearsman of sorts. The day was green.
They said: “You have a blue guitar,
You don’t play things like they are. “
The man replied, “Things as they are
Are changed upon the blue guitar. “
Wallace Stevens (1879 – 1955), American modernist poet
8) Brown and Black
“She arrived on time, wearing a raincoat,
a gray skirt, and a white sweater.
“Do you ever wear anything that resembles color?” Roddy asked.
Laurie Coĺwin (1944 – 1992), American journalist and writer of drama and documentary genres
See: Anne Varichon “Colors. What they mean and how to make them”, Abrams, New York, 2006
