16. What Colour From Sunshine
- Jul 10, 2025
- 1 min read
Updated: Dec 16, 2025
Admitting degrees of darkness, we have next to ask what colour from sunshine can the white cloud receive, and what the black?
You won’t expect me to tell you all that, or even the little that is accurately known about that, in a quarter of an hour; yet note these main facts on the matter.
On any pure white, and practically opaque, cloud, or thing like a cloud, as an Alp, or Milan Cathedral, you can have cast by rising or setting sunlight, any tints of amber, orange, or moderately deep rose—you can’t have lemon yellows, or any kind of green except in negative hue by opposition; and though by storm-light you may sometimes get the reds cast very deep, beyond a certain limit you cannot go,—the Alps are never vermilion colour, nor flamingo colour, nor canary colour; nor did you ever see a full scarlet cumulus of thunder-cloud.
On opaque white vapour, then, remember, you can get a glow or a blush of colour, never a flame of it.[1]
Footnotes
‘Pigmentation’ – a short DIY film response by Ace Wilkinson, BA (Hons) Acting and Performance, Sheffield Hallam University, Thursday 11 December 2025.
My work tells the story of an artist using their environment to create a painting. I responded this way because I’m passionate about art, words, and colour. I’ve learned that audio is a useful tool that shouldn’t intimidate me.