COLOUR IN MEXICO

Jesús Pena Canton is the Colour Marketing Manager at PPG Australia and New Zealand. Jesús is originally from Mexico, starting and building his career with PPG Comex before making his way to Australia. As told to Rachel Lacy, Jesús shares his insights on how colour in Mexico has evolved from a rich cultural history, and how we can bring Mexican colour inspiration to our own homes.

Mexico is surrounded by such vivid colour, everywhere you look it’s joyous and bright! Why do you think that is?

I think there are two key reasons for this. First is the Mexican personality, like most Latin American countries fiesta is a big thing! We love to laugh, dance, eat and celebrate pretty much everything we can. Whether it’s a birthday, graduation, our local team winning a championship, our national team almost getting a championship (haha!), getting a promotion, getting engaged – we even view death as a celebration of a person’s life. Our ancestors did the same.

The second and most important reason is because of Mexico’s geographical location, there is a large amount of biodiversity (I think Mexico has close to

10-12% of the world’s biodiversity). This has an effect on the food we eat (extremely colourful) as well as the pigments that were available to us to enable the creation of clothes, house paint and accessories.

Because of this we developed a great relationship with nature, if you go back to most of the pre-Hispanic civilizations established in Mexico you will find they adored and praised nature. Some of our ancestral gods are elements like animals, rain, volcanoes and mountains. When you’re surrounded by such an explosion of beautiful colours, you’re never afraid of using them everywhere to bring nature into our cities, our homes and our lives.

You joined PPG Australia from PPG Comex, the leading paint brand in Mexico, what do you think is the main difference between the Mexican and Australian homeowner when it comes to colour selection?

I believe the Mexican market is less afraid of using colour, if you walk around Mexico you will discover many green, pink and orange houses. I believe in Mexico we even use colour to make our houses stand out from those with more conservative colours. It may even relate to weather! When you live in a country with a warm climate you wouldn’t like to paint your house in dark shades, as we know black retains heat – making houses warmer on the inside.

Can colour travel across cultures and geographies?

It definitely can, obviously I love Mexico and I would advise anyone to go and visit. While you are there I would also recommend travelling to surrounding countries to experience the influence from ancient civilizations. Guatemala is a beautiful country that shares a lot of colours with Mexico, The Mayans were established in the southern part of Mexico and in Guatemala. You can also see how these areas had an influence in the southern part of the United States, where they have a high concentration of Mexicans, but were also part of the Mexican territory. New Mexico, Arizona and California are great examples of cities where there is a vast Mexican influence.

I would suggest looking to Luis Barragan, a great Mexican architect or Frida Kahlo who needs no introduction. I don’t have the words to describe their use of colour and I always use them as inspiration. But mainly I would suggest using mother nature as a guide, I think the colour combinations you find out there are always right and work to perfection in any space. I would also get rid of the belief that houses can be colourful only by using furniture and other accessories. In my opinion, it’s easier to re-paint walls if the colour is no longer your cup of tea than it is to get rid of your furniture. All colours are great, especially if they bring you joy.

My family is the number one thing I miss about home, but I would also say that Australia has made it very easy for me to adapt. It’s a country with amazing, warm and relaxed people, with an incredible amount of places to visit and appreciate.