Reading by Aladdin Lamp

[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!

[Alexandra Tyng]

Originally Posted by Enzie Shahmiri

It's almost as if the lamp acts as the center to create a mirror reflection of the other side.

I never thought of that, but I see what you mean. Actually someone who knows both my husband and my brother now was not sure which one was which, or whether they were actually the same person! (Fortunately I have no trouble telling them apart.) Maybe that contributes to the mirror illusion.

[Marina Dieul]

Exciting composition , Alex !
I can only imagine the hard work it must have been controlling this composition and the values : the result seems effortless, a quiet athmospheric scene...
I immediately thought that the man in red was your brother as I can see a similarity with your nose and chin, but I have never seen your husband, so...

[Alexandra Tyng]

Thank you, Marina! It was exciting to paint because there was so much grey and only a small amount of color. You are, of course, a master of this kind of control even under "normal" lighting conditions, but most of my work has a lot of color in it, so this was a departure. Before I started I thought a lot about how I would achieve the subtlety of the color, and how much illusion of color (or implied color) I could get by using complementary colors to make grey, then varying the warm/cool mix to make various "colors." I only added more actual colors near the light.

[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.

[Alexandra Tyng]

Thank you, Linda--though the digital photo exaggerates the contrast in the brushstrokes, I don't know why. Usually I see that in tiffs, but this is a jpeg.

[Garth Herrick]

Dear Alex,

I love this, and I think it is one of my favorites of yours! The composition is strong, the mood is intense, and the poetry of the impressionistic brushwork is perfection! Bravo!

Garth