Reading by Aladdin Lamp

[Alexandra Tyng]

Thanks so much, Thomasin! It was an interesting challenge to use the figures to frame the still life, as you said. I guess I could have marginalized the figures even more. I'm working on these problems with every canvas, and I am feeling that it is a long, gradual process to understand what one is doing and to actually have the control to do it. It is both intuitive and intellectual, and they have to work together. I think if I had tried to paint this years ago it would have looked ridiculous. (The figures would have overbalanced the center to a shocking degree.)

Thanks for noticing the magazine drooping over the edge of the table! We're thinking alike because that was (like the map in the other painting) something I especially enjoyed painting.

[Carlos Ygoa]

Such a treat...2 figurative paintings from you to look at!
You are successful here in capturing mood and atmosphere as well as the obvious technical mastery in all the details (drooping magazine edge included)--can I add that the hand right next to that magazine edge is also exquisite?! Very nice work!

[Alexandra Tyng]

Carlos,

Thanks so much! Perhaps I went out on a limb trying to create a painting in which the figures are not central, but you are very generous in your comments. Working on these (relatively) small paintings reminded me how accurate one has to be in the details, even when the details are just suggested. There really isn't much to that hand, for instance, but it has to be painted just right or else it will not read right, as you know. I think, after painting these, that changing scale every once in a while is a good mental/intuitive exercise.

[Tom Edgerton]

Alex--

Both paintings are just lovely....the balance and compositional control exhibit your usual flair. You have the ability to make very complicated and detailed scenes immediately readable and simple--they are masterpieces of editing. And their spatial believability results from a rock-solid tonal control.

Beautiful!

[David Draime]

Alex,

I usually don't like candle-lit (or, in this case, lamp-lit) paintings - I suspect because they are really difficult to pull off - but I gotta say, this one stopped me in my tracks. It is such a convincing scene you have created. I keep coming back to see this one. I think it has to do with your uncanny ability to create a certain atmosphere, and be perfectly consistent with it - every element in the painting supports that beautifully. It is so believable, I just want to linger, maybe pull up a chair myself and start reading. Just lovely.

David

[Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco]

Alex, what a complex and ambitious work !
Something I find beautiful about it is the narrow range of colours you have used. Not only the painting is almost monochromatic apart from the reds and green, but there is also quite a narrow range of tones.
Taking out the lamp, the greys of the room are very close to one another, and this feels very real: it happens to me sometimes in facing a subject that I panic thinking, gosh this is just all the same colour, how am I going to paint it ?
Well, you have achieved variety with the brushwork and different thickness of the paint, something I really should remember for the future.

Ilaria

[Julie Deane]

Alex, you do such a great job capturing the atmosphere in your paintings!

I can remember being in similar rooms on vacation trips from years ago, with the camp light burning, and it looked quite like this.

[Alexandra Tyng]

Tom, David, Ilaria and Julie-Thanks!

I admit I was worried about getting the color (or the greys) right. The photos I had were not bad for that time, on 400 asa film and grainy but relatively sharp. The problem with the color is that incandescent light photographed uniformly yellow, so I knew there were many variations in skin tone that I couldn't see. Plus, I remembered the Aladdin lamp's light being white and intense. The house has since been electrified, and my brother and I were going to try and find the lamp and light it this summer, but we were not there at the same time. So I had to go by memory. My main issues were correcting for the pervasive yellow and also, as you point out, Ilaria, trying to work with a lot of greys and use them to my advantage (to unify the painting and bring out the areas of color). It was a lot of fun and I want to do more paintings in low light. So, Tom, the tonal control was actually a very interesting problem in this painting!

Julie, your memory of the "camp light" is so close to my memories of this scene. The island where this was painted did not have a generator until recently. We did everything by propane and kerosene, and went up to bed with flashlights. If you read in bed, the batteries would wear down, and who knew when you would get to the mainland for more! So you had to live by the sun. Very much like the camping trips I've taken.

David, I have a problem with paintings that try to look as though they are from another era. So many candlelit/lamplit paintings are like this. I like to paint things that are in the present. Well. . . I guess 25 years ago really is from the last century but we'll let that go, okay?

[Enzie Shahmiri]

Alex, I love the atmosphere you have created as well. One thing that struck me while looking at the painting is the symmetry . It's almost as if the lamp acts as the center to create a mirror reflection of the other side. Very interesting composition!

[Linda Brandon]

Wonderful job on this one, Alex - I love the Zorn-like atmosphere to this painting and I really appreciate seeing the closeup of the brush strokes and paint handling.