Just back from a glorious September holiday in Italy . . . when . . . scrolling through Instagram . . . there . . . a post about Adam Clague’s online Backlit Zesty Citrus workshop. His vibrant photo won me over and I joined up. Now, in late December, I have a new Collection of 7 small Paintings . . . all kind of citrus fruit each one with a central jewel – a backlit citrus slice or segment.
Is that exciting? YES it is. But what does backlighting look like ?
A stained glass window is backlit, a computer screen is backlit. Light falling through transparent or translucent matter takes on a luminosity. The colours glow vividly as if they hold the light from within and become a source of colour and light. A glass, a flower, a segment of an orange . . .
20+ years of academic work behind me, now I want to paint with more speed and give my intuition and expression more scope.
How ? Using different brushes can help. Use a large, bristle brush and it’s difficult to be precise. You can’t go over and over things, not unless you want a muddy colour and dull drawing. A single brush stroke needs to be full of intuitive certainty – at least that is how it must look.
It can take a while to make something look certain and confident. Brushstrokes are explored, practiced, removed, redone over and over. Fortunately I learnt this as an ‘Angel’ (a student of the Angel Academy, Florence). The more experience, the less I mind changing something. Having to repeat a large or small area happens . . . it’s no surprise. I enjoy simplifying things that are too complicated or wrong !
And anyway . . . If I’ve done it once . . . I can do it again.
Look at that! How easy it is to wander away from writing about backlighting and mull over making effort look effortless.
Why don’t I just show you some more paintings? And you can decide.
Cara Oranges – oil on panel 26 x 20cm
Grapefruit, segments and peel – oil on panel 20 x 26cm
Limes and Lemons on Mauve – oil on panel 22 x 30cm
Orange on Glass – oil on panel 30 x 26cm
Orange on a Dark Blue Ground – oil on panel 23 x 21cm
Two Lemon Segments – oil on panel 15 x 23 cm
To my mind the paintings are exciting to see ‘in person’. Why not get in touch and come along to see them – can’t now? There will be an Open Studio, here in my Studio in June ’24.
ALSO
My thanks to Adam Clague, whose online teaching I can highly recommend. Over the month – we worked hard. For those who paint – he uses Complementary Colour Mixing (gosh! it takes some new skills to control). The demonstrations – full of facts and invaluable information Adam shared while painting. Participants painted along with him or afterwards from recorded videos accessible online. And there were feedback sessions when Adam manipulated photos sent to him. He made areas lighter, darker, more chromatic, creating the illusion of space with Photoshop skillfully.
Sometimes a breath of fresh air and stimulus triggers new ideas and ways of painting. Every now and then I join artist lead workshops online and this one was intense and . . . very good. Paintings shown here are a mix of my own and those following Adam.
