What’s your favorite color? It’s a common enough question, and one most people are accustomed to answering. Blue, one might say automatically. Or pink. Some of us like the soothing energy of earth tones, and others feel best when we see (or wear, or think of) the brightest neons or boldest blacks.

Often our homes reflect these preferences. When it comes down to choosing colors for our furniture, our bedding, our walls, we might choose a pale yellow or a lime green but not really think about why. Most of us like what we like and haven't ever considered how color affects our mood or our psyche.

Enter artist Jeanette Ridley-Eccles, whose website we recently discovered. Ridley-Eccles introduces herself and her artwork on her home page with a love letter to color. “Growing up in Cumbria," she writes, "I was surrounded by breathtaking natural beauty and captivated by the variety of colour created by the unique west coast light on the dramatic landscape… I have consequently spent several years studying colour therapy which I believe has added further depth and dimension to my work.”

Ridley-Eccles paintings and textiles are full of color. They are warm, airy and light – and titled, in some cases, to reflect the mood she means to capture. Freedom. Seduction. Esprit.

Her paintings capture – even to a non-color therapist's eye – the principals of what color therapy really is: The practice of using light and color (in the form of tools, visualization, or verbal suggestion) to balance energy in our bodies that need a boost -- be it physical, emotional, spiritual, or mental.

Color therapy is a complex practice – one we wouldn’t attempt to summarize here – but the basic principles, as described above, are certainly something we can get behind. If there are colors that make us feel balanced, or energetic, or full of love, why wouldn’t we surround ourselves with them?

Jeanette Ridley-Eccles has achieved this through art. You might do it through wall color, or fabric, or tile. There are resources out there for you, if the subject is something you’d like to know more about. In the shorter term, just look around and ask yourself – "How does this room make me feel?"

You might be just one coat away from happiness.

For help selecting the right color for your walls, call on the design experts at CertaPro Painters. Find a trusted CertaPro Painter near you.