"Paintings With Personality"

Clock Tower, Germany. describes tourists enjoying a courtyard in the warm glow of ancient buildings. They dream of the people who built these structures and of the people, long gone, who lived in them. They imagine the courtyard filled with nobiliby and peasants, hear the sounds of laughter and wagon wheels on the hard packed earth. 14x20, 140 lb Arches watercolor paper.

Our son has installed an interesting lighting system in his and his wife’s home in Virginia. The house is equipped with motion sensors on the hallway lights, and remote controls for the ceiling fans and lights in the bedrooms. Honey, our granddaughter and I were entertained by it when we visited in August. Honey and I were in our usual bedroom and our granddaughter was in another bedroom down the hall. Our first night there, I was the last to get a shower and got to bed later than the others. When I exited the bathroom the hall light came on automatically, as expected. Not wanting to wake Honey, I left the bedroom light off and made my way about the room by the light from the hall. The problems started when I decided to turn on the ceiling fan. I repeatedly clicked every button on the remote and nothing happened!  Mumbling at the remote, I tried one more time. Lights on, lights off, fan fast, fan slow, fan off, fan on, click, click, click, mumble, Mumble, MUTTER; nothing! I finally gave up and went to bed. Honey, of course, was awake by this time and Muttering at me! The next morning, our granddaughter told me that every time I pushed a button the lights or fan in her room went on, off, fast, slow, you name it, and she was too tired or semi-asleep to get up and tell me.

Which brings me to the lights for my new studio, lighting is probably the most important part of setting up a fine art studio. North light is out of the question for me, unless I take the top level off our house, and Honey might object to that. So, I read a lot about studio lighting, educating myself just enough to call an electrician.

I read about: 1. Kelvin scale, 2. CRI (color rendering index), 3. Lumens, 4. Lux and, 5. CCT (correlated color temperature). You can check them out at: http://www.electrical-knowhow.com/2012/03/artificial-lighting-types-and-design.html. I learned that not all full spectrum lighting is the same, you have to carefully read the packaging to get what you need. If you are looking for better studio lighting, let me know, I’ll email the information I gathered to you. I’m not including it here for fear of boring those who are not interested.

The goal for a fine art studio is steady not too warm or too cool light throughout the day, with additional lights that can be turned on if you need them. Avoiding glare on your work is important, especially if you are working in oils. You also have to be aware of reflected light and color that might bounce off the ceiling or walls.

I read what other artists said about lighting and found two who like full spectrum fluorescent tubes with a tri-phosphor coating. Three preferred CFL’s (compact fluorescent lighting) on a 4 bulb track. Further research told me that the CFL lighting is good in a small studio with 8ft. ceilings, but not for big studios.

The old Incandescent lights are too yellow, fluorescent lights are too blue and combining them doesn’t work. Full spectrum fluorescent lighting, either a tube or a bulb, with 5000K or more, a CRI of 85 or more, and at least 7000 lumens are easy to install and economical. I was thinking about going with track lighting and the CFL bulb, until a friend sent the following link to me and now rethinking everything again. There is no perfect answer, and art, when completed, is seldom viewed in a daylight setting. Most will be seen in warmer lighting and the colors you created will not look the same as they did in your studio.

If you are having difficulty seeing value or certain colors, it could be your lighting. What are you using for lights in your studio? Have you experienced something better that I could explore?

By the way, our granddaughters remote worked on her lights and ceiling fan as well. Our son said all he had to do was change the channel on the remote. I hope he’s right. Later, Judy

www.judyballance.com