Thursday, May 30, 2013

Lost and Found Edges

 Orb
7" x 5" acrylic

While I love painting water and fish, I find that pretty much anything that has similar reflective surfaces always appeals to me.  A natural sideline towards glass is inevitable and I love the challenges it presents.

Within this glass marble there are a number of lost and found edges.  The found or hard edges create the light reflected off the surface and the diffused or lost edges make up the values within the shape and in the reflection of the marble on the table it sits on.  The lost edge are the bottom of the reflection seems to dissolve into the darkness of the table and again at the edges.   This blurred area helps provide atmosphere in the painting as well as define what the surface is made of.  We know from that reflection that the table does not have a brilliantly reflective finish and give a mirror image with the same detail that the marble is painted.

The marble sits in the light and its hard surface where the light strikes it has strongly defined areas between the values, the light bleaching out the colour and only coming back as the surface curves towards the shadow.

The values of colour and light within the marble have both soft or lost edges as one colour blends into another to indicate form. This contrasts well against the crisp edges of the highlights and marble's outer edge.

A variety of edges in a painting gives interest and keeps the viewer's attention.  The found edges become the focal point of the piece then let the eye travel to other areas with less focus.



6 comments:

Christiane Kingsley said...

Very well done, Jeanette...as usual:-) Your lighting and the way you treated the background adds a certain majesty to this glass marble...it could be a huge object in space. I love it! You are so versatile.

Unknown said...

That is so good, and so informative! I haven't mastered the idea of lost edges yet, I have to force myself to really look hard at my piece and decide which edges are a distraction because they are too crisp. You demonstrate so beautifully just where and when to do that!

Jennifer Rose said...

simple subject, but it has a very dark and moody feeling :)

Jeanette Jobson said...

I love painting glass objects Christiane. All those little shapes satisfy the detail freak in me and just have to come out sometimes. :)

Katherine, we can offer so much information in a painting just through brushstrokes, can't we? Lost and found edges seem to dictate their presence without a lot of studied intervention at times, but its good to think about what brings an object into focus and why sometimes.

That's just what I was looking for Jen. I wanted to see if I could create that mix of both light and dark in the piece to provide mood.

The Art of Kim Kincaid said...

At first I thought this was colored pencil. There is such clarity in your delivery. Love the colors too.

Jeanette Jobson said...

Kim, I swear I have multiple personality disorder when it comes to art. I go from loose like the olives, then fiddly detail like the marble. I wish my brain would settle down to one thing! :)