Our favourite colours

(5 min read)

​

​

“There´s a reason we don’t see the world in black and white.”

Celerie Kemble

 

 

Imagine that each living being, animals and plants included, has it’s on special place in the visible light spectrum. As in Word, where you can change the colour of the text that you are typing into the computer, there are innumerable possibilities.

 

Do you know your own colour? Do you know who you are when you are by yourself and turning your attention inside, when there’s nothing external there to define you? Just as colour cannot easily be described with words, it can feel impossible to put into words who we really are. It is wordless knowledge gained by feeling and perceiving.

 

Have you ever noticed that you are behaving differently with different people, as if you were acting out some role instead of “being yourself”? I can be talkative or quiet, crack jokes or stay rather serious, be intellectual or heart centred, feel free or rather caged, be swearing a lot or be considerate and polite, be permissive or rather strict, open or closed off, playful or serious etc. All of these traits are part of my colour and whether they show up and whether I like them or not depends on the timing and the colour(s) that keep(s) mine company.

 

​

When we go out into the world and interact with other living beings, our colours merge with theirs into an abstract painting. If we meet with just one friend, it’s going to have two colours. If we meet with a group, it will be a multicoloured painting.

​

In each painting that we are creating with other individuals, our colour will appear different. Sometimes it fades into the background, because the other colour is so strong and bright, or it will dominate the painting and the other colours can barely be perceived. Other times there’s a beautiful balance and harmony present in the creation. Sometimes the colours are painted side by side, other times they interlace like a colourful dance. Sometimes there’s a big contrast between the colours, other times they are a very similar shade of the same colour and difficult to tell apart.

​

The question we need to ask ourselves each time we create such a painting with someone is not whether the colours go well with each other from a stylistic, aesthetic or colour psychological point of view but whether we like the painting and whether it will have a positive impact on our inner art gallery. It is a very personal choice. It is also not necessarily a question of liking the other person’s colour, but how we feel about the painting that we create with them. I can like or even love someone, but still decide that having a relationship of any kind is not good for me.

 

​

Our own true colour will always be the same, even if it looks different or feels different at times depending on the company we are in and the outward expression of it. It is important to realize and observe that sometimes it is about us and how we feel about our own colour. It is very easy to blame it on the other colour, when we don’t like looking at a certain painting at any given moment. We are so used to seeing our own colour and often focus more on the other one instead of looking at what is going on with ours.  It is easier to focus on what others do or don’t do instead of placing the attention inward and try find out why we feel the way we feel and take responsibility for it.

 

It is pretty normal that at some point in our lives, our colours become a little bit dirty. Limiting beliefs, unhealthy habits, unpleasant experiences or traumas can dampen its brightness and make it shine a little bit or a lot less. Underneath it all, however, the real colour is always there.

 

It is therefore not surprising that when we grow as a person and start working on ourselves, the paintings in our inner art gallery change. Suddenly we don’t like a certain colour combination anymore or we realize that our colour starts outshining another one and that we feel the painting is holding us back, because we want to shine even more. Or maybe the other person’s expression of their colour has changed in a way that we don’t feel comfortable with anymore.

 

A certain painting can also be quite enjoyable and become even more enjoyable or an already beautiful one turns into a masterpiece when one or several of the colours increase their brightness. Anything is possible in the world of relationship paintings.

 

It is remarkable how often and usually before we start working on ourselves, we tend to draw paintings with other colours that feel familiar to us even if they don’t match so well. Just because this is what has been hanging around the house we grew up in and it has always been part of our lives. The moment we start cleaning and polishing our own colour, we suddenly see this part of our art gallery from childhood in a completely new light. Maybe we can accept it as part of our past, maybe we can refurbish it with the others that are involved and create new master pieces or we take them off our walls entirely and put them into the storage room of memory. Again, this is a very personal matter and any decision made is valid.

​

The inner art gallery is supposed to give us joy and energy when we visit the different halls and look at all the paintings that are there. If any painting doesn’t fit or feel right, we are well advised to listen to this feeling and take the necessary steps in order to improve or remove it. I feel it is important to say that we are always well advised to give any painting that we feel we need to remove a long and profound contemplation just to make sure that we don’t discard any good painting just because we temporarily feel uncomfortable with looking at it.

 

​

And any new painting that is being created needs to be thoroughly checked. Sometimes we draw people into our lives that feel mesmerized by our colour. It gives them something that they are missing or there is another reason why they adore it. Yet just because someone loves our colour or what we paint together, doesn’t mean we have to love it as well. Or translated into real life: just because someone loves us, doesn’t mean that we love them back or that we feel loved. Just because someone wants to be in our life doesn’t mean we need to let them in.

 

This is especially important to keep in mind for highly sensitive or intuitive people. We tend to have a special colour that blends well into any painting and we are really good at creating compositions that others appreciate and need in their inner art gallery. But it is always a joint project and all artists need to benefit from the end result.

 

 

What does your inner art gallery look like?

 

Do you enjoy walking through it and looking at the paintings?

​

Are there paintings that just always have been there? How do you feel towards them?

​

Are there any paintings that you would like to alter? What would you have to do?

​

What is your favourite colour?

​

What colours inspire you and what make you feel at home and safe? The ones that are similar to yours or the ones that represent a strong contrast?

 

 

May you enjoy the creative process of relationship painting.

May you feel at peace when you spend time in your inner art gallery.

May your own colour be free of dust and shine as bright as possibly possible.