One of our site visitors submitted a watercolour to “Your Galleries” section, of Epping Forest, a beautiful protected area in north-east London. Looking at this watercolour reminded me how lighting affects what we paint. Here in the northern hemisphere it’s early summer, and in England the light is soft, moist and muted. Some may refer to it as “that dammed rain again”, but there’s no doubt the climate affects the subject and the style.
In one of my “Photo of the Month” series, I show a panoramic shot of the hills high above Windermere in the English Lake District, and I comment on the memory of that afternoon. I also remember the quality of the light. It was totally different from my area of Ontario, Canada, where the sunlight is bright and the skies usually clear and dry unless rain is forecast. Outdoor painting is quite different from England, as the light changes rapidly and the shadows refuse to remain still.
Two of our sons live in Australia, and each time we visited them time I’ve been struck by the intense sunlight and the stark shadow details presenting themselves to the artist. In the Art Gallery of New South Wales, in Sydney, many of the paintings are of the outback. This is a land of glaring sun and often harsh surroundings, and the artists captured their subjects superbly.
The quality of light we face as painters in watercolour influences our style and subject matter. During the years my wife and I wintered in Florida, I found myself painting pure blue skies and almost garish colours. The local landscape was full of vivid blue, orange, pink, purple, green and turquoise. At first I felt I should tone it down a little, but after having several paintings accepted and hung in Panama City, I found myself quite at home with what other artists were doing.
My very first experience of the dramatic effect of climate on light was as a new immigrant to Canada. My wife-to-be came from Banff, Alberta, which is about 4500 feet above sea level. As I disembarked from the train after a four-day journey across Canada, I was amazed at the intensity of the sunlight and the sudden dramatic darkness of the shadows. I was not painting in those days but just beginning a life-long interest in photography. The difference in lighting caused me many problems until I learned to compensate for different exposures and apertures.
Our own local conditions affect how we paint, and even how we think about painting. We should cherish those conditions. The type of snow paintings I do in Ontario would simply not be possible in England, New Zealand or Australia, but I’m sure I couldn’t capture the soft muted quality of the English countryside without years of practice. That is why I hope site visitors will send in their work from different parts of the world: we could all learn from each other how light affects what we do.
John Fisher