Colour description of Charing Cross Bridge

The colours in Charing Cross Bridge are amazing. It ranges from pink to orange, to turquoise. At the top of the painting, the sky is painted with a base colour of different shades of yellow, and with orange that highlights the brighter areas in the middle of the sky. The sky is a lot brighter in the middle than at the sides of the painting. Pink is also found in the sky, which is most likely the reflection from the sun located at the top right hand corner of the painting. The sun is coloured in a darker shade of yellow and pink.

Below the sun are the parliament buildings. They are painted in shades of blue-green. They appear to be painted darker probably because they are against a very bright yellow sky. There are other buildings beside the taller parliament buildings that goes across the painting in a line that are also painted in shades of blue – green but they are barley visible as they are a lot lighter in colour than the parliament buildings.

Below the faint row of parliament buildings in the background is the bridge. It is painted in shades of blue-green and some highlights of yellow. The turquoise-blue colours are used as shadows for the bridge. The yellow and dark shades of yellow-white are highlights for the bridge. The water below the bridge is coloured from the reflection of the sky and the bridge. There are yellowy-pink shades with darker blue-green shades as the shadow of the bridge. The water is light on the right side of the painting from the reflection of the sun. There is also a pile of lightly painted rocks at the bottom right hand corner of the painting. It is painted in shades of pink and blue and dabs of green. The golden frame used in the gallery for this painting matches the painting’s colour scheme as it is also bright and in a yellowy shade.

There is hardly any contrast in the painting as all the colours are almost the same brightness. The blue-green is a bit contrasting against the yellowy background but it does not stand out since the yellowy colour also fades into the bridge, acting as highlights for the bridge. The yellowy shades on the bridge are a bit darker than the yellow in the sky so it does not appear as a bad combination of colours when painted with the blue-green.