Fields, lighting, and fields o my!

With this painting "Christina's World" by Andrew Wyeth it is not the lighting I necessarily prefer but the ambiguity in its portrayal. We do not see the woman's face--therefore we can think anything we like about it, that is what I genuinely like about this painting. She could have just woke up after dozing off from the lazy musing that a field of grass and a sunny day could only do. Maybe she was in the midst of running away from a life that begged to be eschewed; only as her beginning departure teemed regret was she able to look back one last time at what she might possibly leave behind. So I guess I would say this painting represents anything that you might give it. I cannot help but give preference also to the fact it is set in the country, in a wheat field (my soft spots).

I figured I ought to put a photograph here instead of concentrating on just paintings. I know nothing of good photographers so picking out which one struck me within the brief period from which I was browsing left me with this photograph by Florian Ritter. What is it with me and fields and open country? Nevertheless this is how and why I like it: I cannot help but see the pathway between the plateaus (naturally made) and the road akin to go around them. The natural trail is green and full of life, whereas the road matches the clouds above: gray and ominous (lifeless and dull). That is probably an odd interpretation but that is why I like it nonetheless.



To me this just shows how austere objects can be enhanced with the proper placement and precision of light. I look at light two ways: 1. No light 2. A degree of light. With this painting by Pieter Claesz as an example I will try to explain what I mean. Take the light away from this painting and what do you have? Nothing, blackness. Ok now put light on the background but not directed at the objects on the table and what are you left with? Similar, but different colors: (a uniform murky, brown color on the glass/a cloudy, but lightened, dark of tarnished silver: both for the candle holder and the saucer with the solitary olive). With the proper light I feel that these usually ugly things are slightly hinted with eloquence and beauty--which is what Claesz has done. The light here almost becomes another color that was not before present or intrinsic with these objects--the color of the light here becomes almost angelic because it adds something that cannot be possessed otherwise. That is the simplicity which I found within this painting, and that is why I felt the lighting made it beautifully simple.