>>> Artistic Techniques Seminars
Lecture
Colour has always accompanied the allegorical and symbolic imagery of cultures throughout the world, sometimes acquiring its own allegorical meaning. White, for example, represents purity in many traditions. Even without studying cultural history, people can often intuit the meanings associated with the colours of the rainbow. This is because such associations grow out of human experiences shared across societies. The warmth of red, for instance, is linked in many cultures, including Christianity, to passion, which is psychologically experienced as fire and heat.
Every culture has associated meanings with the colours of the rainbow. Beyond the conventions of particular historical periods, many of these meanings reflect experiences we can share, suggesting a universal dimension of colour as language.
Yet if colours can express ideas derived from experience, the reverse is also true: colours can themselves become an experience. This is the central theme of the workshop.
Workshop
Colour can lead us to experience different inner states, each with particular psychological, emotional and physical qualities. Every person responds in a unique way; there are no fixed rules determining what a colour must mean.
Participants explore techniques for entering into resonance with a colour, a way of observing it, and the different ways people experience it. By comparing their responses, they develop a deeper awareness of their relationship with each of the seven colours and learn to use colour more intentionally in their artistic work.
This is a workshop for all the senses. Painting with one colour at a time—red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet—participants undertake an inner journey aimed at elevating their inner states.
Following a collective analysis of each colour, participants explore the mental and emotional states associated with it. They work with hands, brushes, palette knives or whatever feels appropriate: what matters is to experience colour consciously and interpret that experience meaningfully.
Workshop Topics
Who Is It For?
Anyone who wishes to understand their own language of colour. Maximum 12 participants.
Duration
Two 16-hour weekends, or four study days from Thursday to Sunday: a total of 32 workshop hours.
Cost
The fee is agreed with interested participants.
Download workshop information sheet (PDF, Italian)
Lecture preview
Colour as an Allegory of Inner Journeys
Much has been said about colour. Among the best-known systems for organising colour are those of Goethe and Itten. Spiritual and philosophical traditions, including yoga, have also investigated colour in relation to psychophysical energy.
These systems, born of experimentation and careful analysis, have enabled researchers to express ideas and intuitions about the vast and sensitive world of colour.
Colour is therefore not only an end in itself but also a means of exploring inner journeys and understanding ideas. Colour selected and manipulated by human beings is always contextualised and, in a sense, purified.
There is no purely natural colour in our experience: colour is always humanised, since it takes shape within the central nervous system as electromagnetic impulses are interpreted.
There is also another kind of colour: the colour of our inner states, our vital and psychological moments.
Inner states, expressed allegorically by Silo, help us ask where we are in our inner development. They form a kind of map, ranging from instinctive and seemingly meaningless experiences to more luminous states open to the future.
As people grow, and even over the course of a single day, we move between these states: from apathy to enthusiasm, from thoughtful attention to a restless need for action, and through many other transitions.
Silo describes these states in The Inner Look, inviting us to pay attention to our existence. Through the allegorical use of colour and its different energetic qualities, we seek to experience and understand these inner states.
As in all our workshops, the aim is not solely artistic—to create expressive, meaningful, energetic and beautiful painting—but also personal: to grow as human beings and seek spiritual elevation.