oak painted without artificial light
oil on board, 183mm x 130mm
artists collection
the edge of vision
Outdoors at night in winter with no moonlight. Artists working at night usually use some kind of artificial light to brighten the work surface so that it roughly matches the brightness they see in the landscape. Here no such light was used, so only very low ambient light was reflected on the board. In low light the resolution power of the eye falls: so only large brush marks are visible to the painter. Hence the big marks in the picture. The yellow spot was a plane on the way to London Stansted.
You are probably looking at this image in a brighter light than fell on it as it was made. In a room in low light, and to some extent at a distance, the rough paint collapses back to the apparition I saw.
Historical : Before the invention of electric light collectors and artists spoke about how a painting "went out" - meaning how well it looked in a room in low light, before candles were lit. In the 1820's John Constable's patron Archdeacon Fisher wrote to the artist that his newly acquired White Horse (now in the Frick in New York) went out well.
exhibition
The painter Sarah Arnstrong-Jones chose this painting for The ING Discerning Eye show at The Mall galleries, London, 2008 :
