Red

Yesterday I saw a photography exhibition at the Museum of modern art.
I struck me how the colour red more often than not gets reproduced in one shade.
It must be because of the chemicals limitation. I have been taught that blue holds the most nuances and yellow the fewest, and red, I presume would have more than this kind of poppy colour red.
see: red truckers

Conclusion

 

As I fade back to grey.

Well, not precisely, but I will not be keeping the contacts. Not because of the price but because I don't find them effective enough and they make me too tired and colour-dazed. Its been a fantastic journey. I don't expect other than colour blind persons to understand, and probably only colour blind artists could fully appreciate the experience. And there is not many of those around. That's about all on this experiment.
We'll see how research develops and when it's a good time to try this again. Cheerio.

Day: 7

 

When I came back to the studio my paintings were not as I had imagined or forseen.

And as usual not as good as I think when I am in the process of making them.

Then again I don't exactly know how colour seeing people find them.

I wish I could record the vision of my coloured contacts so I could go back. But thats not possible.

There is no use only using one contact either, because the contrast of the two visions are to stark.

Day: 6

I feel a bit like a pioneer, although I am not the first I may be one of the first artist's whom havetried this.
As I said before about the neon lights felt a bit like trip. Not that I've been on one but the coloureffects I am experiencing are pretty wild.

I am thinking that my normal vision and this ine with the colour blindness correcting contact lenses.

Day; 5

Not knowing what is colour blindness, my new colour corrective contacts and what could simply be individual colour seeing is tricky. I mean we all see colours a little different from each other but how much can this vary? I simple don't know what is real. I do hope though that these contacts can develop further so I won't lose my red tube of paint again. I am sure I found it today. Until now the highlights have been seeing loads of new nuances in the art gallery and actually getting a good score on the colour blindness test.

This is one of the "muddy" paintings I found so exiting by Niklas Bethke. seeing it now without my contacts it still looks nice. When I started working in the studio today I was rather hesitant and slow in all motions but after a while my pace picked up and I finally found great flow. Better than in a long long while, although I did paint with orange believing it was red for a while. At one point I am working on some ten pieces at a time, which isn't all unnatural to me.Suddenly blue becomes very interesting since it has so much more orange to work with on my palette. Or the range of orange is much wider now. Orange is simply a very fascinating colour. I hope I will bring this experience with me now, whether I decide to keep using these contacts or not. Also, green looses all interest since it doesn't have any more red to complement. Look at the colour circle below for more details... I think I am making some really colourful work today. We'll see tomorrow. Maybe I'll post an image of the work then. I wonder what they will look like without the contacts.

Day: 4

OK, a car that I know is bright red appears orange to me. Red cannot look like this.
Not to me not to colour-seers.
I'm in the studio. Been looking forwards to this day since the beginning of all this.
Can't find my red paint. The names on the tubes are long gone so that give any clue.
I feel tired and I have a headache.
The plan today is to mainly paint abstract. And colourful.













I take a gander at a colour scheme. As I presumed after orange comes purple. And after green comes grey. Whatever happened to turquoise? (Not the band.)
Todays work is both infuriating and confusing.
I don't know what's real and what's not.
The contacts obviosly have their limits but there's more to it then that.
I want to go back to my old familiar colour world.

Day: 3

Today I notice that the strip lights in the metro are perfectly white but around them here is a pink glow.
And I find that some items on my lap top are totally in 3D. Very cool.
Also, a green  neon light which I pass on the way home from work is playing some serious tricks on me.

I stand right in front of it, and then when i slide sideways i little bit the neon completely fades to grey.
I am not sure these lenses are having a correcting effect on my vision, but they are giving me a serious trip.
Each night when I take them off, I feel rather exhausted. This is not at all what I thoght this would be like. I am sure the contacts are giving me some curing effect but they sure are messing other optical senses.

Day: 2

I am trying to read a book on the metro to work.
It's a historical review on depressions and melancholia.
After to stops I give up. It's just too difficult.

I notice that santa clause is wearing an orange hat this year.
That's odd. The candle holders in the next window have the same orange colour.
Is this what red looks like?
I go to SPG Gallery. The show is all right. Lot's of brown nuances that I find very exiting.
I am sure I would never have seen them before. Very exiting indeed!
I would certainly have found them muddy a week earlier.
This is a truely inriching experience. Such variety. I speak to the gallerist for a while.
She is not really with me, but then again she is certainly spoiled with colours everyday.

Day: 1

I just got my contacts in. Today for the first time I shall see what the world looks like for the non colour blind. Hm, the snow looks awfully purple, strange and the construction workers clothes looks really bright red-orange. They really pop out. I walk past a magazine stand, and I find that they shine like a psychedelic poster. Wow, is this what the earthlings see everyday? This is really good! 
As I step in to a café it strikes me how dark it is. Fist I dont think much of it, but after a wee while I find it difficult to read the paper. There is something wrong here... (Can you hear me ground control?)
I need to hold the paper real close to my eyes to read and article. Later in the afternoon I give a class in photo shop and I find i difficult to read the screen. This feels dark.I come home for tea, rather exhausted. 

the Cure

My optician who also happens to be my cousin told me last year there

were now contact lenses that could help. Her employee Ingela informed me this year 2010 that

they now had found some special contacts that possibly could work for me. After some extensive and tiresome testings we found that I indeed was gravely colour blind scoring 2 out of 27 colour schemes. However we found a pair of lenses that made me score almost perfect. Not wishing to be disappointed I simply waited 3 months before asking Ingela to order my contacts. What now will follow is my diary from the days of seeing colour.

I have now tried them out and would like to share my experiences with you.

Colour blindness

If you can read a letter in this dotted circle you are OK.

Being colour blind was only something I gradually became aware of.
I remember at age 8 I wondered why my sister's lottery price was a white pig.
Apparently it wasn't so white. Later in school we all did the colour blindness tests
and I scored really poorly. My choice to become an artist had little to do with this
disability, though I felt I needed to make up for my handicap by being good at colour theory. This knnowledge not only helped me in painting but made sure in discussions that nobody around me suspected that I was colour blind.I felt aqward being a painter and not seeing colour "properly", stillI felt compelled to pursue my calling no matter what. And I can't see how colour blindness has been a disadvatage to me today.

Yellow

Dear reader,
what kind of character does the colour yellow withhold?
Back to start, yellow is the most fragile colour for if mixed with anything it becomes corupt and loses it's quality. At times I have argues that dark yellow is infact brown. Theoretically yellow stays within the boundaries of orange and green. If it is mixed only sligtly with these colours it ceases to be yellow and rather becomes a light shade of the diluting colour. Alas, green and yellow becomes lime green or orange and yellow would be called light orange. But ochre and brown hold these same qualities as yellow all up to dark brown approaching black. I don't argue this anymore but rather see yellow as a frail. Having said that I must admit that I apcreiate paintings that mishandle yellow. Staffan Hallström is one of few artist's that I know of that uses the colour yellow well, or rather. His use of the colour is inspiring. It does not hold  respect to the purity of yellow rather it bends the boundaries and informs us that yellow can be both dirty and unpure yet beautiful and emotionally evocative.

 

My colourful daze

Most colour circles are missinformative,  wrong or just slightly off.

A good colour circle (not this one) holds colour theoretical balance, shows a good amount of shades and complexifies the qualities of the colours within it.