To better understand why a particular surface or pigment reflects a certain colour, look carefully at the effect of oil on water, the surface of a CD record, or a butterfly's wing.   It is the number of scales on the wing, or molecules in the case of pigment, in any given area, that determine the frequency bands of light that are reflected and/or absorbed.   In this regard, art and science may have much in common, especially when manipulating new technologies and materials.   There are more chemicals now available for application on the contemporary palette, than might be found in an average chemistry laboratory, and there is clear and substantial empirical evidence, to support recent theories of colour, in practice, not available to the great Masters.

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