In the Pink

There are certain colors I gravitate to when I choose my color palette. You probably do, too. For me, it’s usually earthy colors: greens, blues, browns.

But lately, I’ve been drawn to pink. Go figure. I never would have thought I’d turn to this color. Pink has always had associations that I don’t enjoy - like cotton candy, bubble gum, little girl’s hair bows, baby showers! But pink can actually be quite lovely in those lighter tints.

Prairie in Pink I

I think it all started happening, this turn to pink, when I started looking at a lot of art recently. Most notably Paul Klee, Paul Gaugin, and Henri Matisse. I realized I was favoring those with large areas of pink!

This piece by Paul Klee just brings me joy. I can’t get it out of my head.

Paul Klee, Hardy Plants; source: rawpixel

And I remember this one from art history days in college. That huge expanse of pink was such a shock and hugely appealing at the time.

Paul Gaugin, Cavaliers sur la Plage [II] (Riders on the Beach); source: Wikipedia

Then there’s this one by Matisse. The Open Window…

Henri Matisse, The Open Window, source: Wikipedia

Somewhere I read there are no pinks in nature… but, I don’t know, sometimes my prairie absolutely glows with the color. Albeit, with a slightly rusty tinge. And what about the sky? Haven’t we all seen a pink glow from time to time? And I know I’ve seen pink tree roots…

Prairie in Pink II … (colors a little off here- those two shapes that appear to be white are actually a very pale shade of pink)

So, of course, I started reading about the color pink and- in some ways, I wish I hadn’t. 

I learned all kinds of associations from personal to political.

I searched for the color Pink I was seeing in my mind and the closest I came was a very pale shade. In the book “The Secret Lives of Color” it’s given the name “Baker Miller Pink”- and has an interesting past associated with it. Apparently it was used to calm down prisoners by painting their cells this specific shade of pink. Hmmm… that conjures up quite an image, doesn’t it?

Want to read more about pink in art? Here are a couple of articles I found: One from BBC, the other from Artsy.