Today is the darkest day of the year, made extra dark this year by the pandemic. The good news is that from this day on, the days get brighter. I’ll hold my breath on the other.
Today’s post has a collection of low light and nocturne paintings by Sangram Majumdar, one of my favorite painters.
Look for the compression
As light decreases, so does color perception. In low light, the range of values compress into the lower range. The colors compress as well. The colors in a low light situation aren’t just dark, they’re dim. Notice how sometimes Majumdar darkens the values and dims the color, then uses pops of color to represent moments of illumination. Whenever there’s a pop of color, look to see what’s around it to see why that color is so brilliant. Cover that color pop with your finger, and see how much value and color contrast is in the rest of the painting. What percentage of the painting is bright, and what percentage is dark or dim?
Majumdar’s suggestion to painters: try replacing white with color.
Whatever you have is fine. Really. You don’t need to feel bad or unprepared if you don’t have a #6 brush. You don’t need it. What you need is around you, at your feet. You need that scrap of paper from the bin, the broken plate, the corner of your dirty shirt, and some beet …
Ingrid Calame is an American artist based in Los Angeles, known for her abstract, map-like paintings inspired by human detritus. Calame’s works come from a painstaking process of recording cracks and stains from the physical environment. She first began tracing the shapes, textures and stains on pavements, cultural and industrial sites, reconstructing the places that …
“This has to stop. This has gone on for hundreds of years and it has to stop,” Pastor Kenneth Isabell said in his opening prayer at the third anniversary of Charleena Lyles’ murder June 19, 2020. Three years ago, Seattle police Officers Steven McNew and Jason Anderson shot Lyles seven times after she called 911 …
CoCA’s 24 Hour Art Marathon I just finished CoCA’s 24 hour marathon: 20 artists making artwork in a room for 24 hours. It’s a fun and fabulous premise. CoCA ran a great event, and I can’t thank them enough for inviting me, and for all the work they put into supporting the artists. Thanks to …
Majumdar’s Nocturnes
Today is the darkest day of the year, made extra dark this year by the pandemic. The good news is that from this day on, the days get brighter. I’ll hold my breath on the other.
Today’s post has a collection of low light and nocturne paintings by Sangram Majumdar, one of my favorite painters.
Look for the compression
As light decreases, so does color perception. In low light, the range of values compress into the lower range. The colors compress as well. The colors in a low light situation aren’t just dark, they’re dim. Notice how sometimes Majumdar darkens the values and dims the color, then uses pops of color to represent moments of illumination. Whenever there’s a pop of color, look to see what’s around it to see why that color is so brilliant. Cover that color pop with your finger, and see how much value and color contrast is in the rest of the painting. What percentage of the painting is bright, and what percentage is dark or dim?
Majumdar’s suggestion to painters: try replacing white with color.
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Ingrid Calame is an American artist based in Los Angeles, known for her abstract, map-like paintings inspired by human detritus. Calame’s works come from a painstaking process of recording cracks and stains from the physical environment. She first began tracing the shapes, textures and stains on pavements, cultural and industrial sites, reconstructing the places that …
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