Light and the Cinema, 2023, oil on canvas, 61.25 x 76.25 cm
'Light is the principal personage of a picture', This quote by Manet has such significance because for me, light and air are mostly what turns painting techniques and subject matter into art.
My current work has light as its subject matter. Although light needs to be there to bring a picture to life, many paintings also emphasise a story as well. But my aim is to paint something that needs no words/story since light has a universal meaning and is enough on its own to be the subject matter of the picture. The important thing to be aware of also is that light comes from the artist and not the sun, the moon, colours or the electricity grid. As Matisse put it, 'Colour helps to express light, not the physical phenomenon, but the only light that truly exists, what's in the artist's brain'.
The cinema is projected light, which makes it a perfect motif for a picture emphasising light. The image on the screen in the above painting is not that important and it doesn't really contribute to the subject matter but light brings it to the screen.
There is a quote by Wim Wenders that says so much -
'The only subject is the light as an existential condition of man. There's no need to paint a person, light suffices, it produces us'.
