David Giles’ paintings appear as blocks or patches of colour arranged in various patterns and harmonious relationships, but they are much more than this. When viewed simply as painting, the colours in these works challenge the idea of a two dimensional surface. They constantly meet, overlap, advance and recede as if in a dynamic relationship with the picture plane and with each other. In addition to this they recall the fact that colour, as a visual element in its own right, is a relatively recent concept.

For most of western cultural history, colour was either decorative or symbolic.  It was a way of defining shapes, and making them look attractive, and relating them to the rest of the composition. Or it was symbolic – as with gold skies in Medieval altarpieces. Gold was the most precious metal, and Heaven was the most perfect place, so they had a ‘natural’ association. Even Kant, who claimed that a painting could be beautiful without representing an objective reality, said that colour was part of the ‘charm’ of a painting – not part of its content. He did concede that colouring could have a ‘semblance of higher meaning’ and that it could ‘dispose the mind’ to certain ideas, as the white lily suggested innocence. Other colours suggested courage, modesty and tenderness.

Newton in the1670s discovered that white light refracted through a prism produces the colours of the rainbow. For Newton, however, this was purely a scientific fact. It was about light striking an object. The object would then reflect, transmit or absorb the light that fell on it, and these processes would be picked up by the human eye. Goethe in 1810 put forward the idea that colour could produce an affective response – that it could have psychological and emotional effects on people. This idea naturally appealed to Romantic artists - like Delacroix. There is a story that Delacroix wasn’t happy with the colours he was getting, so he took himself off to the Louvre to study the colours of the old masters like Rubens and Titian. Before he got there, however, he noticed that the yellow cab he was about to climb into caught a shaft of sunlight, and that it cast a violet shadow.

Each of the primary colours has a complementary contrast, which is made up of the other two. Yellow contrasts with violet and red contrasts with green. Delacroix, and the Impressionists after him, realised that by juxtaposing complementary colours their richness and intensity would be increased.  When complementary contrasts are put together the effect is to create movement and energy. When colours are close to each other, or analogous – like green and blue, the effect is one of peacefulness and harmony.

Colours are also warm and cool. Warm colours (red, orange, and yellow) appear to expand and to advance. Cool colours (violet, blue and green) appear to contract and recede. Of course, colours are also light and dark.  Light and dark also creates all sorts of reactions and inter-relationships. Kandinsky thought that warm and cool – light and dark – relationships were just as important as complementary and analogous. He also pointed out that things could get really complicated because colours could be warm and light, or warm and dark, or cool and light, or cool and dark. When there is contrast between light/cool, light/dark and complementary colours are at work, the effect is one of energy and excitement.

As well as their physical properties, colours have also acquired culturally assigned, symbolic associations. Blue is the colour of the sky and the oceans. It is intellect, wisdom, peace, passivity and spirituality: the infinity of the sky and the unfathomable depths of the ocean. Red is the colour of the sun, fire and blood. It is the active principle – energy, excitement and passion. It is also the colour of the earth and can suggest the renewal of life. Light or golden yellow suggests sunlight, intuition and goodness, but a darker yellow indicates treachery, ambition and jealousy even death.

Green, Violet and Orange are derived from mixtures of the primaries, so they can be ambivalent.  Green as a combination of blue and yellow suggests both life and death, heaven and earth – a state of transition. It is the colour of Spring, of growth and fertility, but also of immaturity and naivety. Bright green is the colour of hope, even immortality, but pale green is the colour of death. Violet is the colour of royalty, of pomp and splendour, but also of humility and penitence. Orange – made from red and yellow, suggests the life giving and distructive properties of fire and sun.

Applying all of this to David Giles’ paintings it becomes obvious that these works do not just consist of blocks or patches of colour. Colours have very complex and dynamic relationships in themselves – and then there are all the symbolic associations. What happens is that when all the colour relationships and the symbolic associations move in harmony the effect is one of serenity and peacefulness. The mind of the viewer feels at rest.

Meditation means to empty the mind of all distractions – of the physical surroundings so that it is free to focus on higher things. One way to do this is by listening to music, another is allow oneself to be absorbed into colour – colour without any of its physical associations – just its own dynamic or harmonious relationships.