Trading Places, Near & Far

Illusion in painting depends upon exploiting the visual experience of the artist and the beholder.  An object appears near when blocking the view of a similar smaller object.   This triggers the perception of here and there; near and far.  A subtler question is: Can those objects alternate their location?  Yes, and here is how we exploit not only near and far percepts but also, how we can construe a selected area in a painting to occupy an alternating position of being at one moment near and in the next, far.

Here is a semi-abstracted landscape by Martha Armstrong from 1997 (example one). At first glance we read the map of the painting which suggests that the spaces between the trees are sky shapes. But, because the tree shapes and the sky shapes are so similar we can reconstruct the image to see the sky shapes as light and the tree shapes as dark.  Then the sky shapes can appear to move forward along-side or even in front of the tree shapes.

Example 1. Martha Armstrong.

In example 2 we see Joshua Adams painting which presents us with variably sized rocks on the shore.  We know the larger rocks appear closer to us because the sensation is consonant with our experience of perspective but, we can also accept anomalies. For example some of Adams’ rocks in the distance are anomalies in scale. Some of his rocks in the distance are substantially bigger than their adjacent companions but, because they are numerically anomalous (there are fewer of them) we accept that these rocks are big but, distant.

We have other signs distant rocks. The distant big rocks have less surface texture. They are overlapped by foreground information. They are situated higher in the picture plane and, their color variation is not as pronounced as nearby rocks. The perception of near and far can be triggered by a combination of visual devices.

Example 2. Joshua Adams, Lake Tahoe.

My shoreline rocks painting  is presented in steps one and two (examples 3 and 4).  Here the demonstration of near and far is compressed and exaggerated.  The bigger foreground rocks are quickly contrasted with a series of much smaller background shapes which quickly dissolve into uncertain forms curving into the distance. The only clue to the rocky identity of the distant rocks is that  they are blended and share a collective outline with a soft-focused saw-toothed irregularity. Furthermore, the distant rocks have less color variety and intensity which are two more perceptual cues that suggest distance.

Example 3. Step one of the Shoreline Rocks.

Example 4. Step Two of the Shoreline Rocks.

With special emphasis on the chromatic strength of foreground elements and foreground color contrasts artists can stimulate a sensation of greater immanence especially, when the background is allowed to fade dramatically in color as well as serve as toward a pale complement the preceding area. Notice that the foreground (in example 5) relies on high value and  high color contrast while the background recedes as a pale gray-violet  resting above the yellow field.

Example 5.  Painting on brushed silver enameled laminated aluminum, 24×48.

Color and value can alone trigger a feeling of proximity. In example 6  observe how the hotter contrasting colors feel close-by while the distance is relegated to varying values of blue until we get to the sky territory whose pink atmosphere swallows the edge of the horizon.

Example 6. Waves, oil on brushed silver laminated aluminum, 24×24.

Example 7. presents an image with an extremely compressed foreground (near) area while only suggesting a distance (far)  through the use of a high horizon and a few flecks of yellow interrupting the curtain of foreground grasses. This is the first step of this painting.

Example 7. Meadow Grass, oil on brushed silver laminated aluminum, 24×24.

To compress the foreground even more forcefully against the picture plane I offer example 8.  Here the colors are intercut and interlaced with competing shapes. The effect is closer to fractured stained glass than flora.  The interstitial blue colored shapes can appear to jump from background to foreground.

Example 8.