Aerial Perspective

N.B., Click on images to zoom.

'Sketch in Snowdonia'

Oil Paint on Paper. - Private Collection.

Click here for comments by other artists on this work, or to order cards/prints.

This painting was produced fairly quickly in one of my favourite painting spots, Ogwen, in Snowdonia. I was aware that the view could be a good example of aerial perspective. This is a technique, sometimes also called 'atmospheric perspective', which enables an artist to create a sense of distance and space in a landscape painting by modulating colours and other elements to simulate the recession which is observed in nature.

Leonardo da Vinci gets the credit for first using the term aerial perspective in his Treatise on Painting. He wrote: "Colours become weaker in proportion to their distance from the person who is looking at them".

Here is a scientific explanation of the effects:

The presence in the atmosphere of moisture and of tiny particles of dust and similar material causes a scattering of light as it passes through them, the degree of scattering being dependent on the wavelength, which corresponds to the colour, of the light.

Because light of short wavelength—blue light—is scattered most, the colours of all distant dark objects tend toward blue; for example, distant mountains have a bluish cast. Light of long wavelength—red light—is scattered least; thus, distant bright objects appear redder because some of the blue is scattered and lost from the light by which they are seen.

But for we painters, who are not necessarily thinking at all times of the scientific particulars, these are the key points to remember; 

As the distance between the object and the viewer increases : 

• Objects increasingly have less distinct edges,  

• Interior details become blurred,  

• Objects appear lighter in tone,  

• Tonal contrast decreases,  

• There is less colour saturation, 

• There is a colour shift towards the background colour (usually blue in most circumstances, though not all). 

             quiz  quiz quiz  quiz  quiz       “details, details............”    quiz  quiz  quiz  quiz  quiz          

What's occurring?

(The answer will be in the next posting.)

And here's the answer from the last posting -

 

'Broadway Boogie Woogie'.  

by Piet Mondrian, 1942-43, Museum of Modern Art, New York.

             quiz  quiz quiz  quiz  quiz       “details, details............”    quiz  quiz  quiz  quiz  quiz          

"And yet the artist will go on with his work without knowing in some way if any of his representations are sound or unsound. The artist knows nothing worth mentioning about the subjects he represents, and that art is a form of play, not to be taken seriously." 

Plato

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. . . . and now, a Recommended Read . . . .

'The Painters Secret Geometry'

by Charles Bouleau

For years anyone interested in this amazing book has had to order it through their local library, (who are usually good enough to search for an old copy), or they had to pay into the hundreds of pounds when they discovered that a copy had occasionally turned up on the internet. 

But fortunately it has now been reprinted and can be bought in hardback (£24.95) or paperback (£13.95) format for the price of a normal art book. I first read it fifty or so years ago and was intrigued by the analysis of compositions of the old and not so old masters.

It has influenced the way I work myself, and I know it has many other, followers. Treat yourself to a copy if you can. (The illustrations are not as clearly printed as I remember in the original, but it's still useable)

"Bouleau's classic illustrated work examines the essential reliance of European painting tradition on the golden mean and other geometrical patterns. From antiquity to the present, expert painters-including abstract modern masters such as Paul Klee and Jackson Pollock-have conveyed harmony through the mathematics of spatial division, ultimately giving geometry a crucial role as the foundation upon which these classics were built. For over half a century, The Painter's Secret Geometry has been a seminal work for students of art history and composition. Now this popular, rich analysis is back in print for today's artists and historians."

 Amazon Review.

Published on Allegro Editions

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