I’m A Color Expert!

I’ve claimed to be an expert on so many things here — from psychology, to storm chasing, to cooking, to biking in the snow, to wine tasting, to snowman building, to head-standing, to bird-languages, and to basically every aspect of life in between — that I probably have no credibility at all when I write such an outlandish title as the one above.

But this time, I’m not kidding. My entire adult career was spent working for the biggest paint company in this world. And the paint industry is ALL about color. (Well, maybe a few other things such as abrasion & impact resistance, weather resistance, and protection from moisture, corrosion, acids, industrial chemicals and stuff like that.)

So, yeah, color was a big part of my gig. I know color like a lawyer knows how to manipulate the legal system. I know color like a Youtube “influencer” knows the latest trends. Unfortunately, I know absolutely nothing about Kodak’s Kodachrome process of developing film for optimal color enhancement.

Another unfortunate thing is that I get the impression from the description of the challenge, that we should be looking for exciting colors in the natural world. Unlike cool places like, say, Utah, there aren’t a lot of colorful rock formations or desert blooms out there right now in MY Town.

Still I came up with a few colors from Mother Nature today.

A big BLUE sky.

No shortage of GRAYS and BROWNS.

A little GREEN too.

And huge expanses of WHITE.

And the title picture features that nice quintuplet of blue-gray-brown-green-white.

But, when it comes to brilliant colors, nature cannot compete with manmade materials. Here are some examples of UN-natural colors I found today:

Primary Colors:

RED steel

BLUE Fiberglass

YELLOW plastic

Secondary, Tertiary, & Other Colors

ORANGE plastic
TAN stucco
GRAY concrete

PINKISHCORAL siding.

See you next week when I can (hopefully) produce a little more variety of color in a single picture.

Hi. My name is Greg and I ride my bike a lot. That is to say, I ride my bike almost every day. I go on long rides and short rides. Sunny rides, cloudy rides, and rainy rides. I like commuting, errand-running, day-tripping, overnighting, and touring on my bike. I ride on city streets, highways, gravel, single track, and snow with equal enthusiasm. Sometimes I ride fast and sometimes I ride slow. I try to keep my feet on the pedals at stop lights and I do not dismount when I hop up on a curb. I have a roadie bike, a mountain bike and a touring bike. I try to accept any challenge a bike ride can throw at me without complaint. But I don't like bugs.

8 response to "I’m A Color Expert!"

  1. By: Lednar De Nalloh Posted: March 4, 2021

    Sorry but the green wasn’t very green.

    First came the artist, then came the critic

    • By: gregblood Posted: March 4, 2021

      Sometimes I’m a little hesitant to show videos with “potty humor” to the Feeshko because she might say something like, “what are you, a 3rd-grader.” In this case, however, she let out a long and hardy laugh. Then she told me to forward the video to her sister.

    • By: Suzanne Posted: March 4, 2021

      Ditto what Rich said ROTFL (although I had to look up what it meant)

  2. By: Rich-Illinois Posted: March 4, 2021

    Nice colors!
    We too, are Kodachrome challenged around here. (Among many other things) 😉

    The say to “Ask Sherwin-Williams” so I’m gonna ask: Is black a color?
    There seems to be some debate about that.

    So no more monkeying around, I’m going straight to the top to find the answer.
    Thank you in advance.

    • By: gregblood Posted: March 4, 2021

      Rich, thank you for your confidence in my expertise. The answer to your question is: Yes, black is a color . . . and a very fine one at that.

  3. By: Suzanne Posted: March 4, 2021

    If anyone knows how to think outside the box, it’s you, Greg! I think I might do a rhapsody in brown this month, or else copy you.

    • By: gregblood Posted: March 4, 2021

      There is no such thing as copying here on Cycle365. There is just doing similar things in one’s own unique place. Personally, I like brown, and I look forward to your “rhapsody in brown.” Gershwin had it EASY with a popular color like blue.

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