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OIL
David Earle
T
he most notable aspect of my work
is the way I portray light in vivid
street scenes and vistas overlooking
the city. I am mainly interested in
exploring light and colour. Colour is
light and is thus subjective to changing
light conditions. This interest draws me
to depict scenes at dawn or dusk, which
enables me to capture the dramatic
change in light at this time of day. My
style is influenced by a broad range of
artists who are all interested in how
we see the world relative to changing
light conditions. These include Claude
Lorrain, Hasegawa Tohaku, Charles-
François Daubigny and J.M.W.
Turner. Josef Albers is someone who is
currently at the forefront of my mind.
I particularly like his statement, “The
aim of our studies is to prove that
colour is the most relative means of
artistic expression that we never really
perceive what colour is physically.”
In a fast-paced, modern world,
I am glad that painting requires you
to slow down and take stock. I spend
a considerable amount of time on
each aspect of the process. My highly
detailed paintings can take up to six
months to complete. I capture the
scene with hundreds of photographs
and a number of thumbnail sketches
with colour notes. I often revisit sites
a few times to explore and understand
the essence of that place. Back at the
studio, I use reference material to make
harmonized compositions in the form
of postcard-sized drawings. These
are drawn and redrawn to explore
different compositional options for
a painting. The next stage requires
drawing onto the canvas, although
the composition still isn’t fixed at this
point and alterations are still made
during this stage of the creation. The
drawing is fixed with an imprimatura,
which is an initial thin coat of paint.
This allows me to work from a mid-
tone background. I usually use a warm
colour like a dull orange, red or pink.
I have found using an imprimatura
extremely helpful in creating a
coherent and balanced colour palette.
As Albers so elegantly put it “any
ground subtracts its own hue from the
colours which it carries and therefore
influences.”
The painting then finally begins.
Layers of paint are slowly built up
one at a time. The first layers are thin,
sometimes as thin as watercolours.
This allows me to easily change colours
and tones if I wish to, which provides
my work with an underlying element
of fluidity and flexibility. Every time
I place down a new section of colour
it affects how the other colours on the
painting will look. I thus do some very
rough colour studies at the same time
as the “real” painting in order to test
colour combinations. I find it easier
and quicker to make colour decisions
on a small-scale study. The overall
result is a painting with varying layers
of paint, some areas are very thinly
painted while others are painted in a
thick impasto. This diversity allows a
more interesting visual experience.
I find photographs cannot compete
with painting and drawing as the
hand offers unlimited possibilities of
representation. A camera can never
do this as it follows a fixed formula
that is stale and rigid. Painting and
drawing are free from systems and can
thus provide fresh new perspectives
for image making. Colours look
different to the eye depending on what
Expressing Lighting Conditions
The panoramic cityscapes of David Earle
are explorations of light and colour
UNITED KINGDOM
DEMONSTRATION
tzu, oil on linen, 110 x 75 cm (43 x 29")
wallpaper
(WallPaper)
#1