Nature’s Lovers are Colors – Purple and Green Together

Posted on | October 23, 2009 | 1 Comment

Purple has two "near-complements" which are orange and green. This bathroom photo shows how well purple bridges both the sage green tile color and the "orange" colored natural wood.

Landscape artists often refer to the color combination of violet/purple and green as “Nature’s Lovers”. Not only do purple and green look good together on an artist’s canvas, they can look amazing together in your home.

The beautiful combination of egg carton colors In a supermercado in Cuernavaca, Mexico caught the lens of my camera. Notice how the green is "softer" than the stronger color of violet. Putting a bright color next to a softer color creates interest at the same time it quiets the brighter color (a little). Note how in the photo of the bathroom shower above, the purple is much brighter than the green. It's the same principle.

Purple and green pair beautifully in the garden.

From soft gray violet to deep amethyst purples, painting your walls your favorite shade of purple will go with more colors than you might think. Here’s why. Purple is a mixture of red and blue. That means you can easily coordinate purple with those colors. Green is another color that coordinates beautifully with purple, but not for the same reason. The color green is what artist’s refer to as a “near complement” to purple.

Even though a “near complement” sounds like something socially awkward, in artist’s terms it describes a particular secondary color’s relationship to another color on the color wheel. (If you want to learn more about color relationships including what is a primary, secondary and tertiary color, read my book, Paint Happy.)

Deep grayish purple and medium grass green are natural foils to the outdoor patio furniture in this retail location. Patio World, Bend, Oregon.

If all of this sounds too complicated, stop before you decide that choosing colors is just too complex of a subject. You don’t have to learn any complicated aesthetic terms to enjoy color. Look around you and you’ll see unlikely combinations that are beautiful together. In nature you’ll often see green and purple together at your local farmer’s market or produce section at the supermarket. Eggplants, artichokes and asparagus are examples of vegetables where the colors green and purple exist beautifully together.

Consciously seeing color and noting color combinations you like is inspiration you can bring into your life and into your home. Next time you’re thinking about home colors, look beyond the paint store before you start choosing color chips. You might surprise yourself with the combinations you realize you enjoy.

www.CristinaAcosta.com

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