Why do the colors pop in these flower studies?
Inspired by GEORGE BOTHAMLEY's art article from ART EVERY DAY - “Mary Moser - Flower Studies”
I was curious to see and find out what made this particular style of flower painting or still life painting so attractive. Mostly with beautiful and contrasting vibrant colors.
The 2 paintings we’ll be looking at are:
"A Bunch of Flowers (1792-1797)" by Mary Moser
"A Vase of Flowers (1744-1819) " by Mary Moser
The magic behind the flower studies from the Golden Dutch Age.
One of the reasons why the flower studies from this particular style of painting have such an impact on the viewers and a master at grasping our attention is the strong contrast between the dark background and the vibrant and bright colors of the flowers.
Using a darker background makes our eyes focus and concentrate on more visible and interesting subjects and colors. Our eyes are hungry for information and something more exciting than a boring dark background. So guiding our eyes to focus on what’s the most attractive. (Which are the flowers)
Which color tends to attract us the most?
Out of curiosity, I decided to do a little experiment to analyze and see which color tends to pop out the most within these flower studies. And also understanding the reason why certain colors pop a lot more than others.
In the first painting, we see "A Bunch of Flowers (1792-1797)" by Mary Moser. Discovering which colors attract use the most and why.
Red = Pops out the most because of its natural intense and vibrant colors. The lighter reds pop out the most since the red flowers in the shadows tend to blend into the background.
White = Although not a color, white flowers are also the top picks for attracting our attention. Due to the strong contrast between the black background and the white. It makes the shade pop out a lot.
Pink + White = Very closer to its close relative “ the white flower” Light pink flowers also do tend to pop out quite a bit. Even if it’s a shade of darker pink, depending on how vibrant it is, it will grab our attention.
Yellower and Orange = These two colors are the next top colors that would grab our attention. Due to their natural warmth in colors like red, they also tend to pick our attention since we tend to attract more towards warmer colors.
Blue = Is the least attractive color out of all the other colors we see here. It’s more pale and low in saturation. Which makes it easily blend into the background.
Purple = also tends to attract the least attention, due to the nature of the color. If it’s like a dark purple, that would blend in very easily into the background.
After looking at both paintings and seeing which colors tend to “pop” and attract our attention the most. The key things I did notice the most are:
Vibrant = The more vibrant and intense the colors are, they tend to be more visible compared to the dark background
Brightness = Having a lot more brightness and light also helps make the flowers and their color more visible like the white flowers and the light pink ones. Even the light blue ones.
Warmer colors = Since our eyes are normally more attracted to warmer tones and colors, those tend to be more eye-catching than the colder colors.
Mini Exercise for you!
Feel free to find some pictures of your favorite flowers and explore and try out and see how the colors would react when we put them in front of a dark background and a white background. How does the color change and also which colors tend to pop out more? Have fun playing around and experimenting!
What did you discover?
I’m curious to see what your thoughts are about flower studies and why certain colors pop and others don’t. If you also discovered something new, I would love to know! (You can comment and share your thoughts below!)
Thank you for reading my fun little discovery and I hope you also get to learn and share your discoveries too!
You can also share it with fellow friends, artists, and cellists of today's Victoria Yu Art on social media, forward it to someone who might benefit, or text it to a friend. Thanks for reading!
PS Feel free to watch my new YouTube video about this new post! Sharing thoughts and ideas!