Using natural balanced lights

Cynthia Daniel · 11-19-2001, 11:40 PM

Recently I received a promotional email for natural balanced lights for painting. I forwarded the email to a couple of the esteemed pros on my site to get their opinions on the product. I received an answer back from Peggy Baumgaertner and after reading her response, I felt this subject warranted posting on the forum. Below is her response which she gave permission to post for her since she's getting ready to go to Brazil for 3 weeks!

Peggy Baumgaertner · 11-19-2001, 11:42 PM

You should paint your paintings in the environment in which they will be displayed. Since most people do not have the natural balanced lighting systems in their living rooms, your painting will only look worse than where it was painted. Even museums do not have natural balanced lighting systems. If I paint a portrait in my studio (ambient north light and a very few supplemental regular bulb flourescents ... sometimes very low ambient light, I basically paint in the dark), it will only look better if placed in a well lit room, and never needs to have artificial lights because I painted it to look good in the corner of a dark room without supplemental lighting.

We're chasing the wrong goal trying to paint in only optimum conditions. One of the biggest problems I see in present day studios is that they have TOO MUCH LIGHT!

Mary Sparrow · 11-20-2001, 10:04 AM

Peggy and Cynthia..thanks for posting this..I have often wondered about this..Why paint a portrait in bright light when the room it will hang in is often very dim light at best..It makes much more sense to me to paint this way..I will be curious to see other artist's comments.

David Dowbyhuz · 11-21-2001, 04:53 PM

Less light to paint by? What a curious notion you advance, Peggy; and the way you explain does have a logic to it, I grant you.

Frankly, I don't see how a painting that looks fine & true in natural light would suffer in low light; 3D objects don't. The ambience of any given room WILL effect the character of a painting (or any object in that room), no debate, but painting in that type of low light by choice baffles me.

During the time I painted with standard incandescent light at night, and returned to it the following morning, I was often frustrated to see the night-time effort looked false in daylight, but never the reverse.

I'm sorry, but I swear by my OTT light. Would never go back to incandescent or (shudder) florescent light.

Peggy Baumgaertner · 11-21-2001, 06:04 PM

David,

Incandescent lights are yellow, and do not translate to ambient north light, which has a broader spectrum. I find my regular florescent (which are actually on the pink side...) to be truer to the cool north light (even closer that the OTT which tend to be warm...). I also typically use only north light, with some filler of florescent. My main point remains the same. Until 100 years ago, the only light they had was natural north light. If you like your OTT lights fine, just don't flood your studio with them. My comment remains the same, most studio have TOO MUCH LIGHT.

I found that when I painted in my typical overlit room, I usually had to sell the portrait with an attachable light for the frame or to help the client figure out where to have tract lighting on the painting. The many times I would bring a portrait into a home, set it up against the fireplace in the living room, and have to go find a light so the client could see the painting. Rembrandt's "The Night Watch" glows off the canvas. It needs no extra light source. It traps what little light is in a room and reflects it back. My paintings do, too. (I won't go into my theory on under painting here...)

BTW, I paint in a dark room during the point in the painting when I make value adjustments. Cadmium colors do not read true in bright light, they appear lighter in value than they really are. Blues tend to read lighter. (To test true values, see them in B&W.)

Paintings are not 3D objects, they are 2D trying to emulate 3D effects. Try turning the lights off and painting with low ambient light. Try adjusting your light values so they shine out. See how your middle tones disappear into background, adjust them so you have a truer middle. Turn off the lights and see how well your painting retains it's value massing. Believe me, if you paint for low light, your paintings look stunning in mid to high light situations. The reverse is not necessarily true.

Peggy

David Dowbyhuz · 11-22-2001, 09:48 AM

Hi, Peggy.

Thanks for taking the time for such a thorough reply. Having the resource of such proven, professional opinion (A Stroke of Genius, et al) is going to prove invaluable. What an attentive, generous group you are a part of, Peggy!

My "studio" (what would be the dining room in a "normal" home) receives natural light through a large patio window oriented north-west; mostly west. The only time I use really bright artificial light is when I do my graphite study. I try to paint as much as possible in natural light on week-ends, and only revert to my (one)OTT light at night. I find it a very subtle light, and my blues are blue the next day, not green. (I must plead to a certain blue-green deficiency in my vision; I'm constantly asking my wife "what IS that color?".)

So, I do not think we're really that far apart on this topic. Thanks again, Peggy.

Karin Wells · 12-08-2001, 03:31 PM

It is most interesting to read what other artists do. Here is what works for me....

I have at least TWICE the recommended true-color-balanced flouresent lighting installed in my studio ceiling. I need lots of light to see what I am doing and a rainy day or nighttime cannot stop me from painting.

The paintings that I produce in this lighting seem to look good anywhere, and in any light that they are hung.

Also, as I near the end of a painting, I shut off all but the most minimal of lights to see if my painting appears to "glow with light"....and if it doesn't, I flick on all the lights and continue the process of building light with my paintbrush.

Timothy C. Tyler · 01-27-2002, 11:25 PM

I agree that we can worry too much about perfect lights...the work goes to a gallery with hot quartz lights to a home with something yet different. My work looks much better in the dark. However, I would rather see what I'm painting and have the work moved into a darker place than the opposite. Wow what a surprise that could be. When I take my work outside, I often see stuff that scares me. Good true light to work from!..what happens later is hard to help.

Lon Haverly · 02-15-2002, 11:03 PM

. . . can mislead you during the painting, and when your colors are viewed in natural light or other light, they may look too reddish or vivid, because of the yellowing of the incandescent lighting. I have had this happen. When it is evening at my studio at the mall, I have very little other than my plain old incandescent bulbs lighting my pad. The colors sometimes tend to look too bright the next day in the light of the skylights. No problem when I draw during the day, though, with a variety of light sources. Better I think to use a flourescent/incandescent light to begin with so you can tone things down a bit, then risk being too pinkish in other light.

Andrea Evans · 04-04-2002, 05:00 PM

Hi Everyone,

Has anyone tried the GE Reveal light bulbs and what do you think of them? These can be bought anywhere regular light bulbs are sold. They are not expensive, so I think I might give them a try. Right now, I combine regular daylight, one incandescent bulb, one fluorescent tube, and one "daylight" tube while painting.

Andrea