Light and Shadows

Brilliant colours emerge at sunset, casting a coral glow on the hospital in London Ontario. When the sun drops to the horizon light passes through more of the atmosphere giving a peachy colour to anything that is illuminated. The shadows take on dark pastel tones. Many objects will have just the top lit up by the falling sun, while the bottom of the object will be plunged into shadow. Reflections really stand out because the whole scene around them is becoming desaturated.  The dark pine trees overlap the brightest parts, which increases contrast. Time is the biggest challenge in a sun set, the lighting conditions will only stay for 15- 20 minutes and they change rapidly. 5" x 7" cold press watercolour, 2003?

Concentrating on the important things, I did this painting in 2005 during a neuroscience conference in DC. A rare date shows up on the front. It took a lot of guts to paint this seemingly simple scene, which contains an autumn tree, a decorative lamp post, a Gothic window, lime stone bricks, and a slanting shadow. The shadow is what drew my attention, it was similar to a painting I did in Spain. To make the shadow really glow, I used purple tones, and overlaid the near black lamp post and brick detailing. 5" x 7" cold press watercolour

Different eras superimposed in time and space. This old storage shed was part of some farmland being slowly consumed by housing developers in London Ontario. It was interesting to see the large apartment building and the much smaller barn nearly overlapping, and with a common light source from the setting sun.  There is a little dark dirt pile at the front right of the barn, it provides dark contrast in order to illuminate the shadowed side of the barn. 5" x 7" cold press watercolour. 2003?

You see the theme here...to paint light you are really painting dark. The visual system will compare mid tones and light tones to the really dark element like the pine trees, the lamp post, or the dirt pile. Clever use of these devices will create a strong illusion of light in a painted work. I accidentally discovered this trick while painting a pile of construction debris.