PRACTICAL
The challenge of capturing the atmospheric quality of light in paintings has captivated and frustrated artists since the enlightened discovery of chiaroscuro, the way light and shadow behave. Artists such as da Vinci and Caravaggio explored this shadow-to-light quality in their work, successfully representing the threedimensional world on a two-dimensional canvas. Although working with a more saturated colour palette artists such as Monet, Pissarro and Degas would chase the atmospheric qualities of light in the fields and theatres of France trying to capture the different ways light would play on the landscape and the human form. Monet famously said ‘Light is my mistress’ and would time his whole working day according to what Mother Nature had in store for him.
It’s always a sobering and surprising reminder we can only see light when it bumps into something and not light itself. If we could see light, we’d be blinded! When it comes to atmosphere, it’s often the absence of light, where shadows are produced, that give the most exciting and evocative atmospheric phenomenon.
DEMONSTRATION Piccadilly Shadows
This demonstration is a scene of both light and (the French for against the day) refers to a scene that looks into the light, creating strong, contrasting silhouettes or where objects (in our case our figures) that block the light, cause long shadows travelling towards the viewer. This lighting spectacle creates a wonderful sense of space and depth making it very paintable and evocative.
