Colours of the Algarve.

It was only in the late 1950s that commercial paint production reached Portugal. Before then people made their own paint from whatever ingredients they had to hand - minerals from rocks and even the earth itself. That’s why old cottages all have variations of the same basic colours - blue, yellow and deep red.

The basic whitewash is made of cal, obtained from limestone rock. When these rocks are put into water, they produce a bright white liquid traditionally called cal (calcário in Portuguese means limestone). This primitive paint is still widely used both inside and out of many old buildings even though - as anyone who has used it knows - it does not last long, due to a chemical reaction between the mineral elements and the air.

When colours are derived from minerals the pigment is a result of the decomposition or oxidisation of the raw material. The most common colours include deep blue, red ochre, yellow ochre and oxidised green and blue. More earthy tones of brown and terracotta were generally obtained straight from the earth or clay in the area, reducing it to a fine powder as with the minerals.

It was said years ago that people used to paint around the doors and windows of their homes in bright blue to keep away the devil. More recently, someone laughed at the very idea - “don’t be silly - it’s not to keep out the devil, it’s to keep out mosquitos!” Have you got any interesting stories or old wives’ tales about the traditional Algarve colours? If so, we’d love to hear from you.

The psychology of colour.

Imagine a world without colour. What would it be like? Empty, depressing… impossible, perhaps. Unless you have experienced a total lack of colour, you cannot imagine a universal palette of shades of grey or even transparency, if such a thing is possible.

So, we can take it that colours in all their glory are integral and essential to life. What you may not realise is that there is more to colour than meets the eye… and that your choice of colour in your home should not be left to chance – or that vat of magnolia so beloved by some builders and decorators!

Think about it; would you buy a grey toothpaste or baby lotion in a black and bright red bottle? Why do you think fast food places are adorned with lots of red and yellow while more sophisticated restaurants go for softer tones of, maybe, peach and apricot?

Our reaction to colour goes beyond culture and fashion. In China, white relates to death and mourning. In the west, white represents purity and is traditional at weddings.

Colour specialist Mark Wentworth, who now lives in Lisbon and visits the Algarve from time to time, spends much of his life travelling the world. He has noted some interesting trends linking fashion colours and shifts in politics over the years. Energy experts say each colour has its own vibration, with deeper, darker colours having a slower vibration than the lighter, more pastel shades. The seven energy centres, or chakras in the body have colours that correspond to the colours of the rainbow – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, and violet/white.