Science

Why be interested?

Different artists have different answers. My own view is that some knowledge of science can help refresh realism in art. And the point of that is to refresh our visual sense of nature and our place in the natural world.

Science offers art imaginative stimulus, technological means and even awareness of new visual material.

With the help of scientist friends I'm currently trying out some ideas in relation to seeing water. We'll also be looking at relationships between painting and digital photography.

Video clips below introduce some themes, and notes will be added as we progress or grind to a halt.

colour-textures :  A method of digital mapping to help paint colour-textures which evolved on site and in the studio.

For an introduction click here.

compression : mind the gap

The gap between the huge dynamic range of colour our eyes see in nature (over 1 / 1,000,000) and the much smaller range possible in a painted image  (about 1 /100) is a fundamental of observational painting.

Can an understanding of dynamic range compression derived from neurology and computer science help painting in any way?

HDR photography

High dynamic range photography (HDR) offers a new source for painters. I'm exploring possibilities for two images; one with broken illumination falling on discontinuous surfaces - dappled woodland; and one with a single illumination falling on a continuous surface - a still lake.

water moves at different speeds

The human visual system averages and resolves input between 0.05 and 0.1 second, inversely proportional to light level. This means that sometimes you see momentary shapes in moving water, and sometimes just a blur, especially at dusk. Some of the paintings will explore this difference.