"Why do you paint such dark paintings?" she asked.
"Dark? What do you mean with dark?" I asked.
"Well, you seem to use so much black in your paintings" she continued.
True, I thought, I do tend to use a lot of black in my work.
I thought about it for awhile, then answered her: "I use black because it accentuates light the best."
Light. Where would we be without it?
During a violent storm which resulted in a black-out, I found myself pondering what life may have been like before we learnt how to harness energy and convert it into electricity, electricity which has given us access to "light" whenever we want or need it. Fumbling about in the kitchen cupboard, I found a couple of candles, but before I found some matches to light the candles with, I managed to step in the cat's water bowl, trip on the living room rug, and scare the cat half to death while flaying about trying to steady myself. Eventually I found some matches and as the first flame flickered into life, I was reminded of the importance of light.
(Some see it as a fact that virtually all living organisms need light in order to survive and thrive.)
With only a few candles to light up my downstairs living space, suddenly the very familiar seemed un-familiar and it then dawned upon me that it was the way light fell on objects, that made it possible for me to surmise what those objects were.
According to some, human beings have a fundamental attraction to light because it aids our mechanism for survival.... whatever danger may lurk in the shadow, throw some light on it and we will know what we are dealing with and how to respond.
But what about fire works, Christmas lights, sparklers, star gazing, city lights, fairy lights, staring at an open fire, etc.? Why do we seem so fascinated by those?
Some suggest that the reason we are attracted to light is as simple as this: visibility, okay, but....that doesn't really explain to me why so often "sparkling" lights seem to be able to trigger responses such as excitement, joy, pleasure, and or a sense of wonderment and awe in many of us when we see sparkling lights.
Some suggest that we are attracted to "shiny, sparkly" things because they sparkle and shine like water.....and water is something humans can't live without. Hmmm....
Light, when it comes to painting (art, in this case) emphasizes features through highlights and shadows and bring depth to a painting, sketch, water colour, etc....and when used masterly as by for instance Rembrandt, Van Gogh, or many of the Impressionists, can evoke a multitude of emotions in the person viewing the painting. By studying works by master painters, it became very clear to me just how important the application of light is, and the starker the contrasts, the more effective and direct the communication between the image and the viewer becomes... in my opinion.
Light shines brightly against the darkness, the darker the darkness, the brighter the light.
Often black (or any dark colour) is associated with something "bad", sad, or dubious, whereas white/bright colours are often associated with something "good", cheerful, friendly, and happy.
(According to those in the "know" this stems from a long tradition of metaphorical usage of black-and-white dualism; symbolically white representing good and black bad.)
Mark Rothko, famous for his colour-field paintings: "Bright colours sort of stops your vision at the canvas, where dark colours go beyond". In themselves, colours, including black and white, do not possess any moral values, it is us that attach such to them. A colour, so say those in the "know", is merely a property of light as seen by human beings.
Having said that, isn't it amazing how we somehow already at toddler age if asked what our favourite colour is, know the answer?
"Colours, like features, follow the changes of the emotions." (Pablo Picasso)
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