#2947 "Indigo Bunting Singing A Love Song"

#2947 "Indigo Bunting Singing A Love Song" 
16 X 20 inches by 3/4 profile in depth
stretched canvas on my Dad's frame
Started at 9:00 am, May 22nd, 2025

This is another image taken by my friend, John Verburg, a naturalist and terrific photographer. John provides a tremendous source of inspiration that encourages me to paint within the Singleton Studio when conditions outside are not conducive to plein air.

The rough in brush sketch on Day One.
A very good start with the eye.
If you get the iris and pupil right,
then everything else doesn’t matter. 

Indigo buntings are a favourite songbird of the Singleton Sanctuary. The small, brilliant and very colourful bird prefers brushy areas along forest edges. We have a lot of those at Singleton. This little frontlit male indigo was putting everything into his song! The feathers were fluffed out, and the notes filled both the sky and the canvas, spilling beyond the edge of the stretcher frame.

Like most other "blue coloured" birds, including the "bluebird" of happiness, the feathers of indigo buntings are not actually blue. The plumage contains the dull brown-black pigment melanin. A frontlit feather may appear bright blue as the light scatters from the melanin, Rayleigh scattering. A backlit feather with the light coming from behind the feather to your eye reveals the true dark colour of the plume. 

Indigo is described as a "rich, dark blue" colour located between blue and violet on the electromagnetic spectrum. It is typically described as a "purplish blue". In fact, indigo might be the most famous of all natural dyes and is still widely used today. Indigo dye dates back thousands of years to India, the main supplier during the Greco-Roman era. China and Japan have also utilized indigo for centuries. 

The dye is extracted from the leaves of plants in the Indigofera genus, which grow in tropical climates. The leaves are transformed into a blue extract that is sold to dyers. The finished dye is prepared in vats with the addition of an alkali (lye or lime) and a reducing agent like fructose. 

In the mid-17th century, Sir Isaac Newton was busy, among other activities, proving that white light was comprised of a full spectrum of colours. He demonstrated that light could be separated into those colours using a prism. A second prism could then reunite those colours to recreate the white light. 

Polymaths like Aristotle, Leonardo da Vinci, Newton, Einstein, and many more define society. 

Aside from being one of the greatest scientific minds on par with Einstein, Newton also engaged in alchemy, theological studies, and prophecy. Surprisingly, these activities were not based on scientific reasoning. The prime number "7" is associated with many things considered positive, such as the seven days of the week, seven continents, seven notes on the musical scale and even the seven wonders of the ancient world. Various cultures have long associated seven with aspects of life and the cosmos. 

Similarly, Newton believed "7" was a cosmically significant, even "magic" number. As a result, Newton decided to divide the rainbow into seven colours: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Newton's sequence can be remembered by the mnemonic "ROYGBIV". Indigo was a popular colour and an extremely valuable commodity in his day. As a result, indigo was the perfect colour candidate if one wanted seven colours of the rainbow. 

Colour specialists want to change the rainbow to only six colours. Six can be considered a "special" number as well, especially in mathematics. Surprisingly, Newton did not select the "6" colour concept. 

• Perfect Number: The sum of its proper divisors (1 + 2 + 3) equals 6. 
• Composite Number: It's divisible by numbers other than 1 and itself. 
• Triangular Number: It's the sum of the first three positive integers (1 + 2 + 3). 
• Pronic Number: It's the product of two consecutive integers (2 * 3). 
• Symmetric Group: The smallest non-abelian group has 6 elements. 

In numerology, 6 is often associated with love, harmony, balance, and nurturing. Also consider the "Six Days of Creation" and the "Six Fundamental Directions". Carried to a triplet, "666" in Christianity is most famously known as the "number of the beast," associated with the Antichrist and a figure of evil in the Book of Revelation. Oh my...

Times change, and maybe "indigo" needs to go. A rainbow would become:

The mnemonic would become "ROYGBP" that just doesn't resonate.

But there is still hope for a seven colour rainbow! Some people think that the colour Newton called “blue” was closer to the modern "aqua" which is a mix between blue and green. As well, Newton's "indigo" was closer to what we currently call blue. The actual colour of the indigo dye cakes was closer to blue than purple. Maybe Newton was correct in dividing the rainbow into seven colours, but he missed on the names. Here is perhaps what names Newton should have used in his seven colour rainbow. 

This Newton approach of seven colours seems to do a better job of describing the full breadth of rainbow hues - just my opinion, of course

To be really precise, the number of colours that can be created by combining the different wavelengths in the visible spectrum is astronomical. There are truly over 16 million different colours that can be perceived by the human eye. How does one invent 16 million different names for each? I have my work cut out for me with every canvas when I attempt to match the colours that inspire me!

Newton, white light, the rainbow and indigo make for an interesting story. Most modern blue dyes are synthetic, so the use of the word "indigo" has fallen by the wayside. I think the word "indigo" is still perfect and simply refers to a colour that people have trouble distinguishing from being either blue or purple.

In attempting to accurately paint Indigo Buntings, I employ most hues of blue in my possession to match what I see and feel. I even used several shades of green and God forbid, "black". 

The Canadian-made Stevenson oils are my favourite, but they closed in 2028.

My goal was to capture what appears to be the elusive true colour of the Indigo Bunting. 

The "cold low omega" block pattern returned, requiring the wood stove for the painting sessions.
I had three palettes on the go to keep my colours really clean.  

I would visit these beautiful little songbirds in #1188 "Indigo" and #2922 "Blue Bunting of Happiness".  There might be more Indigo Bunting paintings to come. 

For this and much more art, click on Pixels or go straight to the Collections. Here is the new Wet Paint 2024 Collection. 

And that is the story of indigo, not blue and not purple, but something elusive in between. I learned and relearned some interesting things while painting this inspiring little songbird. Life is good. 

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick