Looking at Light - Impressionism

Roses and Succulent in a Vase

2016

Photographed outside with natural light using an ipad

Roses and Succulent in a Vase

2016

Photographed inside with indoor lighting using an ipad

Roses and Succulent in a Vase

2016

Photographed inside with shade and some indoor lighting using an ipad

For my most recent painting I set up a still life with two rose stems and a succulent in a vase.  The vase is a clear glass and a little water was added to the bottom.

When I began mixing the colors and applying them I noticed that the vase and flowers were in the light and my painting was in the shade.  So when I began applying the paint to my board it looked very different from what I was mixing. I decided not to correct the colors to look right in the shade. Instead I decided to make a point of mixing all the colors while viewing them in the sunlight and trusting that in the final painting all the colors would match up even though the painting itself was in the shade.

This is different from what I normally do.  I usually start by mixing one of my main colors and then mix the colors more relative to this color rather than matching them closely to the colors I actually see.  In this way I am looking at how they are working together on the canvas or board rather than matching them strictly with the colors I see.  I notice that because the canvas starts out white this tends to influence me to make my light and medium values lighter than what they actually are.  By matching with the colors I see and not matching the colors with each other I notice that many of the colors I mix have darkened a lot.

I made a comment on facebook about the painting I was working on and light. One of my former students commented on how light in painting relates to Impressionism.  This got me to thinking about how I was approaching my painting in a way that was like Impressionism. I had not previously considered making a painting from the point of view of an Impressionist. It has prompted to think more about how and why the Impressionists made paintings the way that they did.

Above I have posted three photos of the same painting in different light settings.  They show some of how I am seeing the colors change when the painting is in light and shade.  What first started me thinking about the colors and lighting was the two shades of green on the rose leaves.  In the sunlight they look different but in the shade they look very similar.