‘Sparkle’ and ‘Glow’
By Miriam Kashiwa, Curator
Adirondacks National Exhibition of American Watercolors
It is a special moment when one may observe a painting that
seems to glow like a stained glass window; to witness a surface radiate as
though physically backlit. This experience creates questions. How can this
occur? Has the artist discovered a mystical alchemy that allows paint to
ignite? Does this happen in all media?
Is it a property of the medium or artistic technique? Is it formula or is it choice?
And many more questions enter the list: what is luminosity or
‘glow’ itself? Is it seen only in the chiaroscuro of classical art -- the
dramatic contrast of light and dark? Is
this common in contemporary art? Does this occur in watercolor?
To begin, there is a condition in the faces in ‘The
Nativity’ by Italian Renaissance artist Antonio Correggio’ described as chiaroscuro, here, termed ‘glow.’ The painting is oil
based and comprised of subtle tonal components. Color is evident but not
primary. One hardly sees the transition from edge to edge creating the forms.
And then one notices the facial warmth as though the cheeks are breathing and
the lips are about to speak. One can
feel the presence of something alive. The phenomenon of ‘luminance’ by means of
modeling lights and shadow has created the appearance of a glowing third
dimension.
There is a distinction between ‘lighted’ and luminous. When
something is ‘lighted’ a beam or ray is shined upon the object. When an object
is ‘luminous’ the glow is emitted from the inner regions of itself as a pearl
or a day-glow wand.
In other cases of classical art, from illuminated biblical pages to the magnificent frescos of
Da Vinci’s fame, artists of all genres seemed to have sought luminosity
particularly in oil based portraiture as Rembrandt’s, Tintoretto’s and other
figural painters of centuries past.
The Impressionists
used oil or tempera paint as their media of choice. Are there examples of luminosity in their
light-filled canvases? Or were they seeking the brightness of the out-of-doors
and the sparkle of contrast?
Monet’s gardens and lily ponds sought engagement with light
and out-door fresh sparkle whereas
Gaugin’s work was more exotic and
sultry. He used warm opaque color and in so doing evoked some of the classical
notion of luminosity. His oils appeared almost pastel-like in solution. Are palette and medium part of the condition
and is individual choice a prerequisite artistic device?
Toulouse-Lautrec, in painting his posters of bawdy life in
musical theater used shades of yellow to connote excitement and enhance
contrast in his figural outlines. This art was straight-forward contrast
without suggestion of glow. He produced quick, flat sketches with spare color
to sell casual Parisian nightlife as ‘glowing.’
In mid and late 1800’s, Sargent’s created watercolor
sketches that pale in comparison with today’s aqueous wonders of vivid, over
scale topics that range across the board. At the century’s turn, Winslow
Homer’s soft edged plein air watercolors of the Adirondacks used accents in
brilliant darks as though to push forms through the picture plane. In the
following fifty years, Charles Burchfield’s barns, fantasies and cityscapes
used darks for back-lighted form. White paper and dark ‘accents’ provided illumination for most watercolor
artists at that time but without the
element of ‘glow’ we are seeing now.
Leading advocates for
using the paper’s white for sparkle in our own acquaintance today are watercolorists Don Getz, Bus Romeling
(dec), Frank Webb and countless others.
There is alchemy at work here: Artistic Alchemy …the
artist-inspired solution to design mixed with powers of
graphic skill:
‘Glow’ requires dramatically lit forms against dominating areas of opaque,
dark ground: dark to light.
 |
| "Northern Road" by David Douglass DeArmond, NWS |
‘Sparkle’ depends on major whites of
paper contrasted with strategically placed vibrant, dark accents: light to
dark.
 |
| "Last Row" by Catherine O'Neill, NWS, AWS, TWSA |
‘Glow’ in current art is becoming more common in major
abstracts and portraiture, particularly where opaque and textured media are
used: pastel, egg tempera and oil impasto. Watercolorists will be challenged to
find texture and opacity in their fluid and transparent medium although the
‘alchemist’ can work exception.
In short, then, we may observe that Sparkle or Glow depend
on the juxtaposition of light and dark.
Only the artist-alchemist can modulate the design and aura to create
illusion.
--Posted by Leslie
Bailey, View staff
The catalog for the
Adirondacks National Exhibition of American Watercolors contains the above
essay, as well as remarks by Pat San Soucie, juror of selection, and Paul Jackson, juror of awards, and
photographs of the 30 award-winning paintings (including the two above). It can be purchased at View or
online at www.viewarts.org.
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