Monday, 24 August 2015

Green

Green

LIGHT GREEN
Good for growth, new ideas and a fresh approach
Fresh thinking, harmony, balance, rest, vigorous growth.

DARK GREEN
Denotes long nurtured traditions

Stability, dependable, reliability, reassurance


Green is a healthy colour according to this quote:

‘When you're green, you’re growing. When you're ripe, you rot.’ Ray Croc

I’ve always loved Green, but that is not the case for many of my clients I’ve seen through the years.   Given that there is a colour for everyone to look great in AND I’ve seen many people looking great in their best shades of greens, I’ve also experienced a greater frequency of clients expressing a dislike for green over and above any colour, even when it looked good on them.  I concluded over time that it must have something to do with the energy and/or the memories it was eliciting.

Everyone in the class agreed that she looked elegant and confident in her 2-star colours, so it was a surprise to hear her say, ‘I don’t like this colour!’

AND PAUSE! The power of silence to let her process what she had just said in contradiction to the feedback given by her friends in the class. As she absorbed the effect the colour was having on her, she continued, ‘And I know why I don’t like them!  The woman that went off with my first husband wore these colours’.

Fortunately, she was now happily married so we were able to engage in a conversation about how well she looked, how many ways she could use it, how to introduce it into her life more gently so that she could learn to love the colour the way the colour loved her!
This would probably have been a different experience if she had not been able to identify the source of her distaste so clearly! 

Was ‘the other woman’ the green-eyed-monster, or was she herself ‘green with envy’ a few years earlier?  I doubt the world would have looked like ‘Green and pleasant lands’

I’m not sure that any other colour conjures up emotions quite like green.  Green around the gills suggesting a certain level of nausea has a very different application to that of green fingers and of young people today being taught well with Green principles to respect, conserve and save their natural environment.  It is a very grounding colour in my experience and hence, when you consider its energy is that of ‘stability and reassurance’, a possible explanation for seeing green as a popular colour for interior design in traditional living rooms.

Green with envy/green fingers/green eyed monster





I love the sound of ‘sea green’ as well as the colour and the image it conjures in my mind of azure seas, Mediterranean holidays, warm balmy evenings and diving off the deck of the tourist boat. 



Equally delighted was my 6 year old recently with his illustrative description of ‘Troll Snot’ for my spinach based smoothie!

Unfortunately, I too am guilty of disparaging colours not to my liking and I’ve even heard others talk of the ‘sludge’ colour when describing autumn.  How much better to picture the leaves as they change and find something to create the image of ochres, oranges and olives in a Mediterranean orchard because, on the right person, that is the effect!

Your Greens range from:
Strong :
Light / Bright
Spring (warm & clear)
Leaf, Kerry
Apple, Mint
Summer (cool & soft)
Sea Green and Jade
Duck Egg to Pastel Aqua
Autumn (warm & soft)
Moss, Dark Olive, Forest
Light Sage
Winter (cool & clear)
Emerald and Pine Green
Ice green

Grow well with your greens, whether experimenting with the fresh and bright end of your spectrum as the vigorous growth of spring, or the deeper end enjoyed by the established trees of both conifer and deciduous forests.  There is something indisputably powerful about them, which could account for its ‘marmite’ reactions when people are introduced to their best greens!

Colour mixing your Greens

Spring
A soft background of neutrals (honey, beige, tan) can be complemented beautifully by a bright leaf green as well as a pastel collection of banana, peach and Apple
Summer
A deep collection of burgundy, plum, navy and sea green can always be lightened with a hint of pastel aqua. 
Or mix sea green with rose brown and mushroom
Autumn
Olives with Orange, Pine green with Royal purple
Winter
Emeralds with…

Green with envy/green fingers/green eyed monster


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