by pink
It’s the season for the flowering plants and various cuttings which have wintered over indoors to move outdoors for the summer. As I care for them I note again that a majority are pink. Is pink really the the dominant colour of flowers in the plant world, I wonder. I scanned a few – at left are some oleanders, in the center are single flowers from geranium clusters , and at right is a dipladenia blossom. Some closeups below.
My favourite colour is red, and pink is a light red, vaalenpunainen in Finnish.
So many many shades of pink… Nature is quite the artist.
June 8, 2013 in Home, Nature, Photoworks by Marja-Leena
Nature is indeed quite the artist. Such depth and texture in something so small takes real talent.
Sininen is my colour. Punainen is my mom’s favourite. I don’t mind pink. I do like the centres of your flowers – intriguing.
I’d have thought perhaps yellow was more prevalent still. These are so delicate. It’s funny that we have a separate word for light red but not other lighter versions of colours.
Earth laughs in flowers…
Not sure who said that, wish it had been me!
Tom, indeed. I’m constantly amazed at all the wonders.
Dolores, blue is a popular one. Your mom and I have the same favourite. Glad you find the flower centres intriguing, so much easier to see with the larger scans.
Lucy, you may be right with yellow… it would be interesting to find the answer to which colour is most common in nature. I had not thought of your observation about words for other lighter versions of colours. Yet we have multitudes of names for colour variations beyond the basic colour wheel.
Julia, I love that quote, thank you!
However we want to name the colors, your scans are very beautiful. I’m so glad the flowers have returned for another season.
I do remember reading a comment by a botanist who said that green may be the most common flower color. Most trees and many plants do have green flowers when you think about it.
Susan, thanks! I’ve not found the answer to what is the most common flower colour, though green certainly might be the one. Anyway, I have no complaints for I do love all the colours of nature. Another question might be – how many colours are there?
All of the colours astound and amaze in their timing through the seasons. Cosmos in the late late summer are a favourite of mine due to their variety (various pinks among them and creamy orange).
The touch of green in the upper right of the skeleton leaf photo intrigues … nature tends to supply at least a splash of brighter colour no matter how grey the background.
Rouchswalwe, I agree, cosmos are wonderful, and so are many annual flowers for their long season of continual blooming. I love impatiens for the shady areas of my garden for their colours just pop.
I too like that touch of green in the photo in the previous post. It brings a touch of life to the decaying leaf and wood. Thanks for noticing!
That was a trick question, wasn’t it?
🙂
Susan, no not a trick, I’m serious. But I don’t think there’s an answer if you look at all the hundreds of names for colours out there. Many are just new names for old names, especially in fashion and home decor and paints. It’s not just the colour wheel anymore or RGB and other colour systems.
I thought it might be a trick question simply because you’re right that there are no solid answers. I’ve read the average human can distinguish between millions of shades, a fact that only becomes obvious to many when trying to match a new color batch with an older one that has the same number. When I work with watercolors I have to be very careful to mix a large batch to a particular shade if I want the same value across a project. The trickiest part of painting sequential pictures for a story I’m working on is that I’m having to pre-plan work on several pages at once. It’s a puzzle – albeit a pleasant one.
Susan, so I did pose a trick question – always learning! Yes, I’d also read about our amazing ability to see such vast numbers of shades, and you’ve given an excellent example of the challenges for an artist. You have reminded of the many times I would do trial prints trying out different colours. When I later had to mix a larger amount of the ink to print the edition, some colours were very difficult to match… especially a certain red/rust/brown colour which I used to favour.
Nothing like a close up to make you see a flower as though for the first time.
Joe, indeed, that’s why I love doing these closeup scans!
I’m seeing so many pinks and reds this flowering season. Flowers everywhere like I’ve never seen before. Yes, we have seasons too, and this is summer!
BTW: I wasn’t able to comment for a while.
Hattie, you say you are having an exceptional flowering season, in a place we tend to think of as having summer year round!
Sorry about the commenting – I’ve been turning it off at times, especially nights because of excessive spam. And all but the newest post have comments off.