TheArtistApril2016__

http://www.painters-online.co.uk artistApril 2016 37

reflectivity of the white panel. Painters call

this the return of light.

If we now make a third panel and coat

most of it with a thin red, but then block

that out here and there with the opaque

red and white mix, we will create a picture

with a local variance in its luminosity –

from opaque flat and dull to translucent

and luminous. This simple principle, that

of managing the fall and the return of

light, lies at the heart of traditional oil

painting and was the essential idea

behind my simple exercise from last

month.

Turbid light

In the example above we created just two

reflectivity states: opaque and translucent,

but light is rarely that simple. For more

complex effects such as shadows, fog, rain

or moving air you need to have paint that

is neither absolutely opaque nor

translucent, but something between the

two: turbid. Turbidity or semi opacity can

be created simply by increasing the body

of thin paint, or spreading thick paint out,

of course. But if you add an oil medium

you can get some astonishing optical

effects.

The most common turbid mediums that

I use are based on waxes or gels. Their job

is to body-up translucent paint by making

it appear more deeply luminous, or to

suspend opaque paint within a semi-

opaque matrix. By using a full range of

Blakeney Nocturne,oil on canvas, 3040in (76101.5cm).

This painting uses many of my glaze mediums to make it glow

North Sea,oil, 3648in (91.5122cm).

Glazes don't need to be finely placed in an energetic study

‘All ‘light’ in a picture is in a sense just

an illusion or visual trick’

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