Naturally Brilliant Colour

This is the first book to reveal artworks made using the world’s brightest colour – Pure Structural Colour, recently derived from the metallic-like colours of Pollia berries, hummingbirds and butterflies.

Pure Structural Colour is a mimic of the type of structural colour that has evolved many times, independently, in nature to appear the brightest type of colour to the eye, and has co-evolved with the visual systems of animals to result in the ultimate form of colouration.

About the Author

Andrew Parker has had a lifelong fascination with colour as both a scientist and artist. He began his career both as a scientist and an artist, looking at the mechanisms behind colour and their effect on the eyes of observers from these different subject perspectives. In 1998 he won international awards with the publication of the Light Switch Hypotheses - the discovery that the evolution of image-forming eyes, and vision in the general community of animals, triggered the 'Cambrian explosion' - the Big Bang of evolution.

He is the Founder of Lifescaped and Senior Fellow at the University of Oxford. Author of numerous bestselling books including Seven Deadly Colours (The Natural History Museum, 2016), In the Blink of an Eye (The Natural History Museum, 2016) and the forthcoming The Line of Sight (Atlantic Books, 2022).