I think orange is a somewhat misunderstood color. Maybe it was the ’70’s that gave it a bad name….and looking at the photo on the left…OK, I can see that.
But, here’s the thing. Orange is worthy of our respect. It is one of the seven named colors of the spectrum. Think about that…only seven colors made the cut and orange is one of them.
Historically and culturally, orange has been very important in both Western and Asian colors. It is the color of Protestantism and is symbolically important in both Buddhism and Hinduism.
Artistically, the impressionists loved to use orange strategically by placing it next to azure blue to make both colors appear brighter.
The “king” of using orange in painting could well be considered to be Vincent Van Gogh who used the color to express the color of the sunlight of Provence in his search for intensity and extremes. 
But, after the impressionists and with the advent of the 21st century, orange was no longer the darling of the art word…orange became the color of safety…and became associated with Agent Orange…and orange shag carpet…yes, orange fell on hard times.
Despite the bad rap, I love orange. Looking at it makes me happy — like yellow. It never fails to lift my spirits. Many of my favorite flowers and foods are orange colored. I have a pair of orange shoes which I love and I even had orange hair for awhile…
In closing, I invite you to enjoy a little Pinterest board I put together with some images featuring orange which I love and encourage you to work orange into your color palette if it’s not something that you normally do. Here is the link to the Pinterest board. Enjoy!
YESSS!!! Orange is …. very special… It is beautiful and it attracts but as we (humans) try to use it we often some how destroys it’s allure…. I am thinking about a Maple in fall all gold yellow and orange and brown… more beautiful than anything and then I time after time try to emulate the vibrance of it by using the same shades in my dyeing and it comes out looking as something out of a bad case of food poisoning or some horror from the 1974….
I have to try figure out what makes it tic… the orange…. 😉
Nice pictures! sure enough, orange is a special color! Bouddhisme, sunset’s sunlight and more. It’s said it’s good to smell orange essential oil to feel better, like taking a little sunlight inspiration.
Have a nice Sunday!
Patricia
love orange……great writing
Thanks for sharing your lovely orange pictures. You are totally right. I have had an aversion to orange for a long time and recently came to the conclusion that it is indeed related to the awful orange shades from the 70’s! The variety of orange shades in your photos have given me a new eye for the color. Thanks!