Thursday, July 5, 2012

Off and running again

Bought and installed new lighting system using the 5000 kelvin 84 on the index tubes suspended about 2 feet out from above my 4x8' easel.  The test was that I put one of those big paintings I was so disappointed with on the easel and it looked like it did when I brought it downstairs, so now, the way I look at it, the lighting conditions under which I paint will allow the painting to look correct in other lighting.  If not, I'll just have to get other bulbs.  They make 6500 kelvin bulbs but they definitely have a blue cast.  I think I'll start on a new painting and see how it goes.

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Felt like disaster

After working on two large paintings for about a month now, I brought them downstairs and was shocked to see that the colors WERE GONE.  All the subtle colors were colorless.  This is the result of the wrong studio lighting.  I have been painting for quite a long time with these lights and why didn't I notice this before?  There was a time when I didn't think lighting was all that important, then I became convinced that daylight effect was the correct lighting and set up my studio to that end using blue gels over my lights recommended by Qiang Huang.  Last night at a painting demo in Rockport by Stapleton Kearns, he mentioned his preferred lighting setup.  After much research today, I'm off to Home Depot to see what I can find.  This information looks very useful:  lighting information.  I'll be sure to let you know after I revise my lighting situation.