Special colour vision

This page offers a very brief introduction to one of the distinctive features of Gordon's work as an artist. A fuller picture is available on the page concerning colour vision.

Gordon shares with ten percent of men and many women the oldest kind of colour vision known to mankind. Instead of having three types of cone shaped colour receptors at the back of the eye, he has two.

Most of us have heard of people who sometimes confuse red and green, but few realise the full implications of this so called anomalous colour vision. Though depriving Gordon of aspects of colour experience familiar to most of us, his special way of seeing provides him with another range of visual excitements. It is these that fuel his passion for colour and explain a great deal about the remarkable individuality of his painting.

For Gordon colour is a great deal more volatile and ephemeral than for most people. It varies much more with the ever occurring changes in natural lighting conditions. To pin down these shifting sands of appearance, he has to look with a special intensity, using parts of the visual apparatus which the other ninety percent of us rarely make use of. In particular he is adept at exploiting his peripheral colour vision. The result is reflected in the intensity of his style and the exciting appearance of the landscapes and seascapes made using his freer and more expressive style.

For other introductory material please consult:

two approaches

marine knowledge

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