local colour

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In art, basic colour of an object, unmodified by the effects of light or colour reflected from surrounding objects. When painting, it is of secondary importance to those modifications of colour reflected from other sources, or to the use of colour to convey emotion.

When painting, an artist has to make continual choices about how to represent objects or people. For example, although a vase might be a plain red, to make it look more dramatic an artist may choose to exaggerate the purples in the shadows, or the colour reflected onto it by a second object nearby. The local colour of the vase remains red, although in a painting the vase may appear full of purples, oranges, and blues.

Black, red, and green are known as the ‘black liberation’ colours, recalling Jamaican black activist Marcus Garvey. Taken from the arms of Nyasaland, the sun indicates the dawning of a new era. Effective date: 6 July 1964. >>