In honor of the Chinese New Year, let's look at the color red. Red is considered a strong color and often symbolizes joy, luck, energy or passion. It may be viewed as an auspicious color and is used often in Chinese New Year celebrations. Of course, in the US we associate the color red with love--it's the color of Valentine's Day.
In "Red Hot Chili Pepper" above, I used red as a neutral background to ground the busy improvisational blocks. Notice how the use of red's complement, green, in the blocks creates some open spaces in the blocks. This is a cheerful, energetic piece that adds a welcome splash of color to a narrow space in my home. It would have had a very different feel if I had used beige or white, which are more commonly accepted as neutral backgrounds, wouldn't it?
Let's see how other TAFA members on Etsy look at the color red:
