Art is all about Light!
Light is the substance hoped for and the evidence of things not seen
Many people look at art as an expression of some form or other, as a visual representation of an object or of an artist’s interpretation of an object, event, circumstance or emotion. In reality, an artist simply gives something form through the use various mediums.
The painter uses colour to express their perceptions
For visual artist and painter Suzanne McGillivray, it is not the form so much that fascinates her, it is the life behind the form or what the form represents. It has been the need to explore and express light which has led her deeper into the understanding and employment of colour, into drawing on numerous media and the utilisation of textures to create life and movement in her paintings, giving a richness and depth to her work. Suzanne is constantly looking beyond the surface of things and of her art reflects this search.
What is Light?
Light is simply a name for a range of electromagnetic radiation that can be detected by the human eye, there are also ranges of light that we cannot yet see.
Electromagnetic radiation is sorted by wavelength into:
- radio
- microwave
- infra-red (the visible region we perceive as light)
- ultra-violet
- X-rays
- gamma rays
The behaviour of electro magnetic (EM) radiation depends on its wavelength. Higher frequencies have shorter wavelengths, and lower frequencies have longer wavelengths.
Light has both wave-like properties and particle-like properties, ‘complementary’ aspects of light, varying the frequency (colour) and/or the intensity (amplitude) of the incoming light. Einstein’s wave particle duality.
Einstein also found that matter and energy are simply different forms of the same thing. We can convert one into the other.
So, light is energy and all is energy. So all is light!
What is Colour?
Colour derives from the spectrum of light (distribution of light energy versus wavelength). In painting of light, one aspect of light (brightness or dimness / light or shade), is signified by another aspect of light (colour). Colours are chosen according to their relative energies within the spectrum, and this unifies a scene in an artwork as a record of light represented by colour, thus colour is used as a metaphor of light’s interaction with the material forms.
Thus colour is energy and brings a correlation to the matter is energy of Einstein. Technically, the amplitude properties of light (brightness/lightness) have been modulated into the wavelength/frequency characteristics of light (colour).
So when a visual artist creates an artwork, they are communicating aspects of light that are given certain forms. In the case of abstract works, which tend to be formless, the artist is generally attempting to communicate something about the object and not the object in itself.
When you next look at a piece of art, endeavour to see as an artist sees, look at the lines, shades, hues, tones, shadows and the quality, subtlety and intensity of light.
