“Light… and the Darkness”

“Light… and the Darkness” 65 x 130 cm (26″ x 51) Acrylic on canvas. Unframed.

… and the darkness I recognize, because I have come to know it all too well–making it difficult to hold on to self worth, self respect, motivation and even a joy of life. That’s darkness the way I experience it, and it’s my battle in life.

Then there’s light

When in the depth of darkness, light becomes a treasure—pushing back a darkness so intense as to allow no light, suffocating all life, even existence itself. But, the must be darkness for light to truly shine.

It’s easy to forget how light changes almost everything. There’s a renewing power in light, it brings hope encouragement, strength—and life. 

Living in Scandinavia, summers are short, sun and light is appreciated by most—myself included—it just feels good and in light there’s beauty. This makes me look to the light for so many reasons… and visually—well, light is essential and while fearing to repeat myself, beautiful.

The light so perfectly defined the pure lines of the figure that I stopped everything and immediately asked the model to hold still— to which she promptly replied that she was quite comfortable where she was. The sun was nice and warm and she figured she could lay there all day—besides, she said (tongue in cheek)… it’s a nice little break away from the kids.

Wanting to remove all distractions and to make the light stand out more clearly, I toned down all color— essentially to the point of the composition being monochromatic, nearly without any middle tones. This left everything almost drowning in overpowering darkness, with just enough light to draw our eyes to the clearly defined contours—though sufficiently lit in contrast to the surrounding darkness to allow an innate yet intangible light to remain, and shine. 

… and, that’s the light.