Complementarity

As a painter I produce works that use heightened colour and as an important part of the composition I place complementary colours in different arrangements to produce optical effects resulting in local vibration or enhancement. But why do complementary colours have such a mutual effect? This paper discusses how complementarity occurs with reference to afterimages and simultaneous contrast including aspects of the neurophysiology of the eye and brain, the overlaying of images by retinal afterimages, the possible occurrence of involuntary saccades when viewing juxtaposed complementaries and an experimental study of the transmission spectra of images and their afterimages. Also included is a discussion of the use of complementaries in paintings.