Yellow of any shade in clothing is so stressful for me, but I will say that I had the opportunity to see those dresses at the MET in person and thought they were gorgeous. 😍
I have arrived at loving many shades of yellow. Especially Italian and French yellows. Warm sun-drenched golden sunflower fields. Saffron. The color of honey. And love rich, vibrant buttery yellow used in Italian dish patterns like the Deruta Yellow Dragon. And pairing yellow with blues is a favorite combo of mine. Very French!
I get the vibe of yellow and the desire to run away but for me I move towards it this time of year - the lengthening of a yellow sunlight on my studio floor during the day, the pop of yellow daffodils or tulips red with deep yellow veins along the petals. The first flower up in my yard is a yellow aconite - a tiny yellow face popping up between dead and soggy brown leaves. Yellow can pull your eye into a bright and happy spring if you let it.
I only recently discovered how much color meant to me emotionally and now i suppose physically. I was so happy to find your Substack.
When i was 13 my mother gave permission to decorate my room. I chose pineapple yellow walls and white provincial furniture. Looking back I'm fairly certain my mother "encouraged" the furniture selection. I wish I had the excuse that I might have been chemically altered, nope chose this completely chemical free. Maybe my influences weren't so sober and chemical free in 1971.
I hated my room after it was finished. I had to pretend I loved it for four more years. I think that may have contributed to how I made decisions for years after.
It was also the beginning of my not being able to express myself freely without worrying what others thought of me.
Today I am sure that I can change my mind without fuss when choosing color.
My favorite colors reflect my moods.
One thing for sure. Anything neutral is yuck for me. It makes me depressed and sometimes lethargic.
Decorating as a teen is SO hard because it feels so important and impossible to get right. That's something I love about being in my 30s—I know what I like now and feel confident enough to change my mind.
At 67 I still don't know what I like, but then again most of my life I've lived in furnished rentals in high tourist areas, so the units were typically bright and cheery, which is (today) mostly what I'm attracted to.
Katy, I have just finished reading this piece in my bedroom in my nonno’s apartment in Italy— a space that I haven’t returned to in 17 years.
My mom actually painted over the blue walls a yellow much like this in anticipation of my arrival, and I feel like a baby in a nursery. Previously, this apartment was a run-down ochre colour which had aged terribly, to which she painted white. But this specific, nostalgic yellow is an expression of how my mom thinks I’m a happy and joyous person!
I’m in this time capsule of a room for another two weeks, and whilst I empathize with your viewpoint on yellow (I am more of a roaring, raging orange person!), being in this room that my mom put labour in from sheer excitement of us being reunited (I live on the other side of the world) makes me feel so joyous that we can alchemise and transmute colours in different ways.
As I write this comment, I am also eating a slice of cake for breakfast. My intention for this trip, even with my dismay at the colour, is to absolutely just enjoy being a baby and being in my yellow room!
I also am very happy to see another writer referencing Goethe’s “Theory of Colours” which I am referencing in a piece about the Cyanometer and delving in to the colour blue, when it is available, I would love to have the pleasure of sharing it with you!
I love a deep golden yellow but bleh to lemon chiffon and anything that veers into pastel!! Also appreciated the reference to Bee Wilson and the kitchen upgrades just demanding more labor. Just the thought of a lemon chiffon cake (and I don’t even think I’ve ever had it) makes my teeth hurt. Thank you as always for the newsletter ❤️
I think you might be a bit hard on lemon yellow for landscape artists would be lost without it. Now that I am working with watercolours I have become more knowledgeable about different yellow pigments and which ones to avoid. Aurelion yellow has a tendency to go grey after a while so now I avoid it. Jane Blundell has lots of interesting info about these pigments. https://janeblundellart.blogspot.com/2014/08/watercolour-comparisons-7-yellows.html
Maria Cosway, writing from Venice in 1791 to her husband Richard Cosway, in London,
“Have you received some patterns of colours which I sent to you? I think there is a yellow which it seems to me the truest that you have searched so long, lett (sic) me know if you like to have any quantity, but I hope you will come for it yourself.”
I’m immediately thinking of Monet’s yellow dining room- so vibrant and with such wild pairings, the green doors, the terra cotta floor… the opposite of the chiffon yellow, his yellow is like a sunny punch in the face!
I'll confess to a sneaking love for yellow - but not lemon, more ochrey shades. I also had a yellow room as a child, a choice made by the landlord, not me - patterned floor tiles AND wallpaper - and it always felt cocooning. I'm not so keen on yellow walls now, also because I think people who don't really like colour tend to choose it when they are being brave, and unless you pick carefully, it can be so strident. I'm partial to a yellow cushion here and there, though :)
Great post, and fascinating connection between these yellows and the Victorian era. As soon as I read that, my mind flashed to the iconic palette worn by Emma Stone's character Bella Baxter in "Poor Things". These shades do work well with Emma's skin tone, I think (this link features the yellows): https://theplaylist.net/poor-things-holly-waddington-costumes-20231204/
And as I sit here typing this, I realize how little yellow I'm surrounded by. I'm looking all around the room and outside, and yellows are almost totally absent from my environment with the exception of one thing... Post-It Notes. Those little notes have co-opted that color all to themselves. Brilliant move, 3M.
I fully understand what you're feeling about yellow. I once wrote an essay called Mean to Green, about my dislike of that color. I've mellowed since then, grudgingly admiring combinations of green now and then, and of course I accept it in nature. As for yellow, check out Caspar David Friedrich's painting Das Große Gehege, to see a yellow that is luminous. I dislike yellow rooms, especially kitchens; they give me the feeling I've been yolked. Speaking of Goethe, my favorite kitchen color is the deep dark red of the kitchen in his Garden House in Weimar.
Yellow of any shade in clothing is so stressful for me, but I will say that I had the opportunity to see those dresses at the MET in person and thought they were gorgeous. 😍
I have arrived at loving many shades of yellow. Especially Italian and French yellows. Warm sun-drenched golden sunflower fields. Saffron. The color of honey. And love rich, vibrant buttery yellow used in Italian dish patterns like the Deruta Yellow Dragon. And pairing yellow with blues is a favorite combo of mine. Very French!
I get the vibe of yellow and the desire to run away but for me I move towards it this time of year - the lengthening of a yellow sunlight on my studio floor during the day, the pop of yellow daffodils or tulips red with deep yellow veins along the petals. The first flower up in my yard is a yellow aconite - a tiny yellow face popping up between dead and soggy brown leaves. Yellow can pull your eye into a bright and happy spring if you let it.
Avatar checks out : )
I only recently discovered how much color meant to me emotionally and now i suppose physically. I was so happy to find your Substack.
When i was 13 my mother gave permission to decorate my room. I chose pineapple yellow walls and white provincial furniture. Looking back I'm fairly certain my mother "encouraged" the furniture selection. I wish I had the excuse that I might have been chemically altered, nope chose this completely chemical free. Maybe my influences weren't so sober and chemical free in 1971.
I hated my room after it was finished. I had to pretend I loved it for four more years. I think that may have contributed to how I made decisions for years after.
It was also the beginning of my not being able to express myself freely without worrying what others thought of me.
Today I am sure that I can change my mind without fuss when choosing color.
My favorite colors reflect my moods.
One thing for sure. Anything neutral is yuck for me. It makes me depressed and sometimes lethargic.
Great article, I loved it!
Decorating as a teen is SO hard because it feels so important and impossible to get right. That's something I love about being in my 30s—I know what I like now and feel confident enough to change my mind.
At 67 I still don't know what I like, but then again most of my life I've lived in furnished rentals in high tourist areas, so the units were typically bright and cheery, which is (today) mostly what I'm attracted to.
Katy, I have just finished reading this piece in my bedroom in my nonno’s apartment in Italy— a space that I haven’t returned to in 17 years.
My mom actually painted over the blue walls a yellow much like this in anticipation of my arrival, and I feel like a baby in a nursery. Previously, this apartment was a run-down ochre colour which had aged terribly, to which she painted white. But this specific, nostalgic yellow is an expression of how my mom thinks I’m a happy and joyous person!
I’m in this time capsule of a room for another two weeks, and whilst I empathize with your viewpoint on yellow (I am more of a roaring, raging orange person!), being in this room that my mom put labour in from sheer excitement of us being reunited (I live on the other side of the world) makes me feel so joyous that we can alchemise and transmute colours in different ways.
As I write this comment, I am also eating a slice of cake for breakfast. My intention for this trip, even with my dismay at the colour, is to absolutely just enjoy being a baby and being in my yellow room!
I also am very happy to see another writer referencing Goethe’s “Theory of Colours” which I am referencing in a piece about the Cyanometer and delving in to the colour blue, when it is available, I would love to have the pleasure of sharing it with you!
I love a deep golden yellow but bleh to lemon chiffon and anything that veers into pastel!! Also appreciated the reference to Bee Wilson and the kitchen upgrades just demanding more labor. Just the thought of a lemon chiffon cake (and I don’t even think I’ve ever had it) makes my teeth hurt. Thank you as always for the newsletter ❤️
I think you might be a bit hard on lemon yellow for landscape artists would be lost without it. Now that I am working with watercolours I have become more knowledgeable about different yellow pigments and which ones to avoid. Aurelion yellow has a tendency to go grey after a while so now I avoid it. Jane Blundell has lots of interesting info about these pigments. https://janeblundellart.blogspot.com/2014/08/watercolour-comparisons-7-yellows.html
I think you're probably right. I am too hard on this color!
This put me in the mind to re-read Sarah Nicole Prickett's piece on 'pill yellow' - evidently gone from SSENSE, but available on the Internet Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20191228095426/https://www.ssense.com/en-us/editorial/fashion/color-story-pill-yellow (and in a nice bit of full circle, she references your old Paris Review column!).
I think both of you capture the ambivalence of pale yellow...beautiful in some lights, oppressive in others.
For me, Pierre Bonnard is a painter who could make yellow seem beautiful. Somehow in his hands, it's captured sunlight.
Maria Cosway, writing from Venice in 1791 to her husband Richard Cosway, in London,
“Have you received some patterns of colours which I sent to you? I think there is a yellow which it seems to me the truest that you have searched so long, lett (sic) me know if you like to have any quantity, but I hope you will come for it yourself.”
I’m immediately thinking of Monet’s yellow dining room- so vibrant and with such wild pairings, the green doors, the terra cotta floor… the opposite of the chiffon yellow, his yellow is like a sunny punch in the face!
I thought I wanted a turquoise and yellow kitchen, but I have hated my yellow kitchen wall for years now. I really, really should repaint.
I'll confess to a sneaking love for yellow - but not lemon, more ochrey shades. I also had a yellow room as a child, a choice made by the landlord, not me - patterned floor tiles AND wallpaper - and it always felt cocooning. I'm not so keen on yellow walls now, also because I think people who don't really like colour tend to choose it when they are being brave, and unless you pick carefully, it can be so strident. I'm partial to a yellow cushion here and there, though :)
Great post, and fascinating connection between these yellows and the Victorian era. As soon as I read that, my mind flashed to the iconic palette worn by Emma Stone's character Bella Baxter in "Poor Things". These shades do work well with Emma's skin tone, I think (this link features the yellows): https://theplaylist.net/poor-things-holly-waddington-costumes-20231204/
And as I sit here typing this, I realize how little yellow I'm surrounded by. I'm looking all around the room and outside, and yellows are almost totally absent from my environment with the exception of one thing... Post-It Notes. Those little notes have co-opted that color all to themselves. Brilliant move, 3M.
The labor of the chiffon cake is also mentioned in More Work for Mother by Ruth Cowan!
Damn, I wanted to show you my India warmth yellow painting, but no way to attach an image here!
Oh! I'd love to see it! Link maybe?
It's actually in the article I'm publishing tomorrow, I'll send you the link then! Thanks for your curiosity, feel free to hate it just as much :-)
Here's the article, my Indian yellow is towards the end! https://tamsinhaggis.substack.com/p/why-indian-art?r=1b6gdj
It’s gorgeous
I fully understand what you're feeling about yellow. I once wrote an essay called Mean to Green, about my dislike of that color. I've mellowed since then, grudgingly admiring combinations of green now and then, and of course I accept it in nature. As for yellow, check out Caspar David Friedrich's painting Das Große Gehege, to see a yellow that is luminous. I dislike yellow rooms, especially kitchens; they give me the feeling I've been yolked. Speaking of Goethe, my favorite kitchen color is the deep dark red of the kitchen in his Garden House in Weimar.
Deep red kitchens are perfect. I saw a line of "Matisse red" ceramics recently and thought they were glorious