Light & Flesh
There is a relationship between light and flesh which has run throughout art history. During January I attended a talk on the Italian Renaissance held by lecturer John Sheeran. I found this lecture really useful in expanding my knowledge of historical paintings – learning how artists used to paint and looking at ‘painting’s’ journey. Ultimately I feel this knowledge can only strengthen my project.
The first artwork which was discussed was ‘Crucifix’ c1280-5 by Canabue. This example struck me immediately in terms of my subject. There is such a huge sense of muscular structure created through the use of light and shadow. It’s not all about texture, fibre and surface.
I feel in this image there is a feeling of iridescent skin and something undeniably human about this rendering of flesh. From this I decided I wanted to gather images of my own skin looking at the effect of light. I think this will help me get a better idea of the volume and the planes of the body and face.
As well as these aspects and the historical context of flesh and light for myself there is an emotional context. I suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder and recently I have acquired a lamp to act as a sunshine supplement.
This is a video of me in front of the lamp. I wanted to document the bright light on my skin. I was looking at my skin in whilst videoing this, studying how it changes and moves. I was then able to take stills to paint from.
The above still from my documentation of my flesh infront of SAD lamp is an image I plan to paint from in the future. I chose this image as it still includes my open mouth and teeth – a subject I am not ready to leave yet.
I have been asking myself, if I introduce light into my paintings do I expect them to have an effect on my viewer?
The religious paintings perhaps did this? What was the effect ? There was a lot of gold and light. A glow. An element or awe? The Sublime?
Light & Flesh
