BLUE
“Let the blue sky meet the blue sea and all is blue for a time”
Blue is a rare colour, hardly appearing much in nature. In the visible spectrum, blue has short waves, around 400 nm. Shorter waves vibrate at higher frequencies (750 terahertz) and have higher energies. Blue is often linked with creativity and calm.
Feeling Blue is the common idiom that we use and associate with feeling down emotionally, listless, and sad. Here are few theories:
The Sky God of Thunder, Zeus in Greek mythology would create a mighty storm when he is angry, and when he is sad, he created rain against the blue sky.
Father of English Poetry, Geoffrey Chaucer, who lived in the Middle Ages wrote a poem, “The Complaint of Mars” alluding to sadness and the colour blue: “Wyth teres blewe and with a wounded herte” – which translates to “With tears blue and with a wounded heart”.
In 17th century, blue devils referred to alcohol withdrawal hallucinations.
Blue as a colour has no descriptive word in Ancient civilizations. In The Odyssey, Homer described the sea as “wine-dark”. It has been suggested that until modern times, humans didn’t see the colour blue.
Today, the Himba tribe from Namibia do not know and are unable to distinguish the colour blue, have no word for blue and have no real distinction between green and blue.
The earliest mention of the colour blue is by Ancient Egyptians. Egyptian blue is the oldest synthetic pigment known, similar shade to Han blue in Imperial China. Blue dye was highly coveted and costly as the dye used semi-precious stone, lapis lazuli. The recipe for Egyptian blue used by Romans got lost during the Middle Ages. The creation for a stable blue became more valuable than gold. During the Renaissance, true-blue, which was also known as ultramarine blue, was five times more expensive than gold. Lapis lazuli used was mined in Afghanistan since the 6th century.
The next synthetic blue was created in early 18th century. In 1709, it became the official uniform colour of the Prussian army, thus earning it the name “Prussian blue.”
This beautiful colour exploded artistically making its way into English teacups. In Japan during the Edo period, Aizuri-e became popular, artist Katsushika Hokusai used it for his 36 views of Mount Fuji and The great Wave off Kanagawa.
Monet and Van Gogh featured Prussian blue heavily in their art. Van Gogh Starry night is believed to be influenced by Hokusai’s blue wave and shape of sky.
When it came to choosing the colour to represent Luna Waves, blue is the perfect choice. At Luna Waves, the colour blue represents serenity, reliability, and wisdom.
Re, December 2023
