Indigo has been with us for thousands of years but it was Sir Isaac Newton in the 17th century who used the term ‘indigo’ to describe a colour when he demonstrated that the white light was composed of 7 visible colours, indigo being one of them. Until then, the word ‘indigo’ was used for the dye, desired by many. The dye was made from a plant called Indigofera Tinctoria, which had been cultivated predominantly in Asia and parts of Africa; some sources mention Peru as well.

The last colour of the rainbow - violet - can be obtained by mixing the colours red and blue. It got its name from the violet flower. Violet, as well as indigo, are a slightly controversial colours. You may have read the article ‘Indigo’ from our ‘Rainbow Of Your Life Series’ where we spoke about it. People see colours differently and what one person sees as violet, another calls pink, yet another blue or indigo. In the case of the colour violet, even the language plays an important role.

Yellow is the brightest colour. It is the colour that we humans can see most clearly. For painters it is one of the primary colours (red, yellow and blue), for scientists it is a secondary colour – primary being red, blue and green.

Red is one of the most represented colours in nature. It is a primary colour and in the history of humankind, it is one of the first colours that were used in art.