Colored Light, Part II

In this part 2 of  “Colored Light” I arranged a series of transparent images. Some are seen with light  coming from the back, others  represent reverse glass painting in which the image is painted on the glass ( like stained glass) but, backed by another image or color to heighten the feeling of depth and stereopsis.  The history of reverse glass painting is old but,  the movie business reinvigorated the process in the 20th century as a technique to supply realistic and atmospheric backgrounds for impossible settings from ancient Rome (Gladiator and, Mel Brooks History of the World) to Sci-fi. Other contemporary artists have been seduced by the luminous and saturated appearance of color  painted or pressed on the reverse side of glass or Plexiglas.  For example (example 1) Gerhard Richter has pressed cibachrome between Plexiglas and Alucobond. We experience a smooth, even, glossy and high tech sensation.

example 1.

Today there is a trend to print giclees on acrylic to arrest a viewer’s attention in an ever more competitive market for novelty. Here is how the process from photo, to painting on glass, to rear illumination can work in a variety of forms. I begin with two photos. One taken into the sun along a shore of sea grass ( example 2). The other taken into the sun along the streets of Florence (example 5). With the sea grass example I placed a clean sheet of glass over a reversed version of the photo ( just as the movie studios might have done) and proceeded to paint selected areas, omitting others, and inventing where personally compelled to do so.  I left small spaces unpainted to allow a background image, color or light to fill those spaces in later as you can see in my examples  3, and 4 . In example 3, I have placed a graduated dark blue field  behind and alongside the reversed-painted glass image. The dark blue  backing appears to ground the image. In example 4. I backed the same painted glass plate with gold leaf.  Where light reflects off the gold the background appears more uniformly light but, where the light does not keenly reflect the back ground appears dark…almost dark brown.  What you can’t see in this blog is that as you change your angle on the image the illumination from the background appears to shift as well.

example 2.

example 3.

example 4.

From this second photo (Streets of Florence example 5) I began by printing the photo on translucent vellum after a previous experiment on Mylar failed.  The ink remains wet on this surface for up to a six weeks and therefore, can continue to be manipulated. I blended and rubbed off areas of the wet photo ink (See example 6). Next, I printed the same photo on 3Ms’s  multipurpose transparence film. The ink dries quickly here.  I painted directly on the photo obliterating parts of the image  and being guided by others(example7). I then placed both images against my own window so they would behave as stained glass works . Those are the images you see here (examples 6 and 7).

example 5.photo only

example 6. reverse lit vellum with erased ink

example 7. reverse lit with oil paint on transparency

In my final example. I took a Times Square photo which I placed as a template under another sheet of glass and again, I painted with oils on the glass. I took a reverse image of the same photo and pressed my wet glass painting into the photo.  This is the image that resulted. You are looking at the glass, the oil paint is on the reverse side.

example 8. .