Night light.

Bottle with two tins. Oil on board 8"x6"

SOLD

It's a bit nippy in the evenings to sit out the back in my (badly heated) studio. So I'm using my gallery office to paint in. There are no windows in the office so this painting was done under electric spot lights. It reminds me of Lucien Freud's night paintings. Electric light lends objects a characteristic look - it makes multiple highlights and shadows. The light seems yellow in comparison to natural light and, of course its unmoving. The last characteristic has quite a profound impact on the way a painting looks. An observational painting made in natural daylight has an "organic" feel. Edges that look sharp when the painting starts can completely dissolve as the painting progresses. Colour and tone change. Shadows move. The painter alters the painting with the light and its these alterations and reiterations that give the painting its "organic "feel. The observational painting completed under electric light has, to me, more of a photographic look to it. The steady light gives the painter time to look and fix the object in space, fix it tonally, be sure about the edges and have time to assess the colour -  hue and saturation and fix these with greater fidelity.

My next observational paintings will be made using different light sources. In the studio there's an old gas light that I plan to use. Its like an old fashioned car headlight that fixes to a gas bottle. I'm not so sure about how safe it is but if I stop blogging you'll know why! I may use the same objects - it'll make an interesting comparison.