Green
11/11/2026
Every morning I walk along tracks through the National Park, which is just over the fence. At the moment everything is springing to life and I can see dozens of shades of green….some almost fluorescent.
The new leaves on the beech trees, ferns unfurling, mosses clinging to the glacial boulders beside the track. Everything is celebrating spring.
While I walked this morning I asked myself why we have such a love affair with green?
As a colour, green has many meanings in lots of different cultures. In Ancient Egypt it symbolised rebirth and life. In China green represents integrity , honour and beauty. In Japan it’s linked to eternal life, vitality and renewal.
Scientifically , the colour green uses short wavelengths , which means it’s a very easy colour for the human eye to see - which relaxes us. A calming colour to have around us.
It’s an important colour in nature, especially in New Zealand , where the bush is made up of myriad shades.
As a landscape painter I’m often asked how to paint NZ bush. My answer is always to throw out any tubes of premixed green paint! If you look carefully at a beech forest you’ll see that what you think of as green also has red, purples and orange. This is where watercolour lords it over other mediums. I can just wet the paper and drop in the ingredients I choose to make my green with and let them flow together to make gorgeous broken colour (see my colour chart below).
If I was painting with oil or acrylic the colours would be much more deliberate and mixed, meaning I might get a “flatter” effect.
No matter what green I’ve mixed, I’ll usually drop in a wee touch of red, as red is opposite on the colour wheel and just neutralises the green a little.
I hope that you enjoy watching nature waking up after the winter - stop and look at the greens. Are they really?
I have just a few of my calendars available still , so please let me know if you’d like one - there’s still time to post one overseas for a surprise Christmas present for a homesick kiwi!
Warmly, Jan
“We sat in silence, letting the green in the air heal what it could.”
― Erica Bauermeister, The Scent Keeper
Jan Thomson
New Zealand Artist & Tutor
© All Images Copyright © Jan Thomson, All Rights Reserved.
