V5 is part of a serie of V-works that extends over the year, referring to a location in which the play of light inspired a new way to think about the gradients. In this work of art the blue turns to mauve and the brown turns to orange. This specific piece is clearly pushed further by my long focus on orange tones and the Orange Wave series, even though it is not part of this series.
This work of art is part of the Light as Translucency series:
The works of art of the Light as Translucency series invoke the impression of vastness, they express depth as an expanse. In making these brighter colour gradients I discover that depicting a sensation of light is not just about using whiter colour, but that a sense of light flows forth from the translucency of the paints themselves.
By approaching oil paints as a material instead of a means to depict an image, I’m focussing on the qualities of paints and the behaviour of colours and light.
For me blue is not just a colour, it is a paint and a substance in its own right, with its own characteristics. Colour gradients can invoke the impression of translucency, yet oil paints themselves can be translucent. When these material characteristics are brought to use, it makes the layers of paint appear like glass or lacquer. The gradients turn vibrant as the light shimmers through the translucent layers of oil and reflects off the white surface underneath. Using translucency makes me bring out a whole different sensations of the same pigments, and so unearthing a quality of indigo that otherwise remains hidden or making dark and brown colours appear light and weightless.
Light itself is never without direction and reflection. When the ground is covered with snow and the skies are white, the whole world is lit up in a bleak light. One would expect light not to reach the ground, yet in this instance, we experience an amplified sense of lightness and spaciousness: the light that reaches the snow white surface reflects to the sky and is then reflected back again.
I use this sensation of light coming from multiple sides in the composition of my gradients. As gradients arise from different sides of the canvas they morph together in beams of an indeterminable light shade of grey. Seeing the light seep in from several sides leads one to experience lightness.
To underline the weightlessness of the gradients I strive to let the works of art appear to float in space. Either by hanging the canvas, letting the artwork hold a middle between installation and painting or by fixing the paintings on aluminum Dibond sheets. These sheets hang on a frame hidden from view, making them into planes that hover in front of the wall.
