Category: beauty

beauty in nature

Much is said about the beauty inherent in nature. Having lived in an inner city environment for decades – a chance to live next to fields and gardens brings a constantly changing visual feast of growth and freshly blooming flowers. Although fleeting – the colour, the variety, the growth are qualities that are part of the pleasurable experience. As Neutra (Survival Through Design ) has observed, nature may often be a source of inspiration for designers, but in nature the appearance, its ‘beauty’ is indivisible from its structure and function rather than an additional surface level decoration. The form and appearance develop simultaneously as the plant grows.

aesthetics beauty colour perception

Butterflies as aesthetic objects

Post author By marneywalker
Post date June 8, 2020
No Comments on Butterflies as aesthetic objects

A number of studies suggest that there are some universally agreed human aesthetic responses to natural environments. A study by Kakehashi (et al) has found certain colour combinations in Papilionade butterflies preferred by humans. Supported by findings from the field of neuroaesthetics, that colour harmony is aesthetically pleasing to humans , and in experimental psychology “that human perception of colour combinations in nature are perceived as harmonious” Her study using human preferences of butterflies has found:

dominant low lightness and contrasting lightness components
dominant low chroma and similar chroma components
dominant orange to yellow-green hue and similar hue components

and that : “We believe that the cognitive effects of processing fluency in these colour combination rules influence human aesthetic responses.”

aesthetics beauty

The line of beauty is number 4

Post author By marneywalker
Post date February 23, 2020
No Comments on The line of beauty is number 4

In The Analysis 0f Beauty (1753) Hogarth presents his view of the principles : fitness, variety, uniformity, simplicity, intricacy and quantity, is that in compositions of :”nature and art.. seem most to please and entertain the eye, and give that grace and beauty..”.

In the analysis of line, used in the description of shapes he asserts that the “waving line is a line more productive of beauty than any of the former, as in flowers, and other forms of the ornamental kind: for which reason we shall call it the line of beauty.” – And that ” though all sorts of waving lines are ornamental there is but one precise line properly to be called the line of beauty which … is number 4. “