White light (creating shadow and light the Colley Whisson way)

I’ve always admired the amazing light effects that the Australian artist Colley Whisson achieves in his oil paintings. They seem to glow with light. So when I was watching his latest YouTube video I studied how he created this powerful effect. It seemed to me that he just painted the local colour that was in shadow, then added white to this colour and applied it on top for the sunlit areas. That seemed too simple!

So I messaged him on the video comments:

“I’m always really impressed by the way you capture light and shadows. Is your light here just the local shadow colour plus white? That simple?”

He wrote back, “Yes, it’s basically that easy. I like to think, ‘Where I see light I need plenty of white.’

So I thought I’d give it a go.

Figs for tea. Water-mixable oil 6″ x 6″

I chose this still life because I wanted to test out the theory at home without the distractions of being outdoors (and also because we have an abundance of figs at the moment!).

The dark blue shadow and the dark brown shadow under the rim of the saucer were painted first and also the shadows under the figs. Then I just added white to these colours to paint in the well-lit cloth on the table. It worked! Quickly and simply I had light and shadow that seemed to just work together naturally.

All that remained was to try this out on a landscape painting and see how it works with foliage etc.

So I went to the end of our garden which overlooks the valley below and had a go at painting the shadows cast by the olive trees. I used my DIY butterfly easel and water-mixable oils for this.

Now, to me, the shadows on the pale ochre earth look a bluish-purple. This is caused by the yellow light from the sun (the other side of the colour wheel). So I painted some of the shadows with this colour, and some with a dark brown, before adding white to it to make the sunlit earth colour. The jury is out as to which looked better – the purple or the dark brown shadows.

Evening shadows 10″ x 12″ oil

Interestingly enough, Colley Whisson often uses this purple shadow colour instead of the local colour, (see the example below). You can see however how he has also used the darker local colour of the sand in the vertical face of the cliff, and added white to this to make the sunlit sand. So he has used both techniques in this one shadow shape. The blue-purple of the shadow on the horizontal ground plane is reflecting colour from the blue sky above, and the sandy-brown of the shadowed cliff face is just the natural unlit colour of the sand. Adding white to this makes the sunlit sand.

This colour change also helps us interpret the horizontal and vertical elements of the picture. Without it, if the whole shadow were purple or brown, we would not see the cliff face as being separate from the sand below.

So I guess it’s a case mixing it up. Use the colours wisely and for the effect you want. Then add white to create the sunshine!

I hope this has been a useful post. Please give a thumbs up below if it has, and make any comments. I’d love to hear your views and ideas on this topic.

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