Light

Painter, photographer, potter, sculpture or collage artist we all work with light. It is what defines our paintings, drawings, pots. Without light we’d be in the dark, but how many of us know anything about light?

I was lucky; I started doing photography way back in the mid-sixties. In those dark and far off days we had two flavors, Kodachrome and Ecktachrome. Kodachrome, gave bright vibrant reds and chilling blues, but was so slow that snails and turtles used to line up and bet on it. Ecktachrome was blazing fast, ASA 64 and boy did we love it. With it you could shoot things like twilight and actually get an image. Of course you had to watch the setting pretty carefully, Ecktachrome was notorious for shifting into the blue range, green under florescent lights.

So I learned to read the light pretty carefully. Then in the late sixties some smart geek pushed Ecktachrome and finally we could take pictures in the dark! In those days we spoke of available darkness.

So none of this means anything to you, you are a painter and could care less about the history of film and the problems of early photographers. But you do. I have the advantage of the Dark Ages before digital, I learned to see light and read its color and level. (I lost the ability to focus on a microgrid screen after my cataract surgery, but I can still read the light without a light meter.)

The Great Masters knew the importance of light. Take a look at any of the Dutch painters, it’s the light or the lack of it that makes Rembrandt seem so powerful and filled with drama. What about Van Gogh? Think Sunflowers or the Café Terrance at Night, it’s the brilliant contrast between the dark and the hot yellow spot light that makes us wonder what went on in that café. When you think about a field of sunflowers do you see Van Gogh or that silly fabric softener commercial?

It’s in the light.

Did you see the Expressions West show at the Coos Art Museum? I won’t whine about the choice of winners, that’s part of the art show business, some one wins and it’s not always your own private favorite. (Although if the jurors would just ask me we could clear up all this disappointment,) But back to the show, the winner was a tree in a dark forest with house lights in the distance.

So? So the tree was brightly lit. Everything else was in varying degrees of shadow. Now where the hell did that light come from? It wasn’t a flash of light like from a lightning blot or a soft glow like the moons breaking through the clouds, it was a harsh yellow flood like one of the old Honeywell strobes that could suck the life out of a dozen D batteries in a coupla flashes.

But in spite of my concerns, it’s that vary light which makes the tree so dramatic. (Probably just garden gnomes wanting a memory for their scrapbooks.)

So light is critical to good picture making, be it photography or paint and you’d best take a long serious look at what you know about light.

And for those who don’t think they know enough, take a look at the link…

http://www.digitalphotopro.com/technique/camera-technique/urs-recher-light-lessons.html

Yes, I know it’s an article for photographers, but the information works for anyone who makes a mark in the dust on the back of the 1956 Oldsmobile in the Walmart parking lot. It’s light and that doesn’t change for painters, or photographers.

Take a look and maybe you will see the light.