Chartreuse

I am very excited about Gerrie's choice of chartreuse as our challenge color for the next round. It is a color that adds zing to so many color combinations. As I look out my window at the rainy Oregon spring I see chartreuse in abundance. It is the color of the moss that coats nearly everything that gets exposed to the elements here—tree bark, paving stones, fence boards, flower posts.

I learned something very interesting about this color many years ago in a color and design class in college. When you are mixing primary colors of paint (dye too, I suppose) the expected way of mixing chartreuse is by adding a bit of blue to yellow. I especially like the clear, clean greens, including a yellow-y chartreuse, that you get by mixing yellow and cyan. But there is a different, slightly more acidic chartreuse, the one I am actually most in love with, that you get by mixing a bit of BLACK with yellow. Amazing—no??