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Science & Technology & Painting

I hadn't figured out this trick before I painted the one on the left.

If I had, I would have been struck that more light needed to be on the left side of each pear.

People new to fine art often assume that art and technology and science aren't related. But we know that Leonardo was a magnificent scientist whose explorations directly influenced his art, and we know that painting en plein air couldn't have materialized until the invention of tube paint (see En Plein Air blog post). Do you know of other developments in science and technology--speaking broadly--that have influenced your painting?

  Sidney Oliver

I am sure that there are a lot of scientific inventions of which I am unaware that have influenced what I do and how I do what I do. I know there are discoveries regarding minerals and paint that only a paint maker, manufacturer, or interested artist would know. The rest of us are happy to exist in ignorance as to the derivations of these ground-breaking discoveries. We just delight in their benefits, of which I'm not knowledgeable enough to discuss.

The technologies for which I am most grateful are laptops and smartphones. They have been a huge aid in my work. Prior to owning a computer, I would use a photograph I had taken and enlarge it or paint from sketches I had made. As most of you know, photographs leave a lot out and don't accurately depict color or perspective. Slides and computer screens are far more accurate with color. Without much effort, I can take a photograph, edit it, and have it ready to use within seconds if not minutes.

One day as I was walking out the front door on the way to the Studio, I was thinking about what to paint. The light drew me to this and...

Morning Light 12X16"

by that afternoon I had this. Yes, I could have sketched it and painted it en plein air, but photographing it sure did help.

I frequently take a photograph when painting on location. I love to have reference material.

At times, I'm just plain curious how closely my painting correlated with the photograph. Often, fruits and vegetables entice me to paint smoothly and in a more exact fashion. If that's the case, I'll do this as I did with the headliner photograph at the top of this post:

Checking the light source on the one below:

Notice that the sky in the painting on the right includes Burnt Sienna, which is an earth color.

I've always been told never to use an earth color in the sky. I choose to eschew such advice.

I switch it up all of the time, but, as I've shown before on the blog, right now I am using the photograph as a jumping off point and letting an organic process take over. I still might want that initial light pattern that attracted me, so I might put my painting and the photograph side by side to help figure out a problem or to see how far I have varied from the photograph as in the one below.

I can paint without the aid of technology, but it sure makes it fun to play around with this equipment. 

As you might be able to tell, I became carried away with finding photographs to compare and I kept thinking up excuses to add just one more. In spite of the fact that I was dreading answering a question on science, I finagled and managed to briefly mention it and then goof off for the rest of this post. Hmmmm. Sounds an awful lot like my school days.

Enjoy the process!

   Ruthie Windsor-Mann 

This post is part of a series of Q & As between Ruthie Windsor-Mann and Sidney Oliver. 

We invite the reader to join in with other questions in the comments section. This needs to be interactive in order to work.

All photographs are by Ruthie Windsor-Mann unless otherwise credited.

Copyright 2019 Ruthie Windsor-Mann All Rights Reserved