Transparency: Master Artist

The next element which we will be exploring with is the idea transparency and how to depict it in a realistic and creative manner. In searching online for paintings which depicted this visual effect, I came across work by an artist named Janet Fish. Of all the paintings of glass, plastic, liquids, and other materials which distort light, her work stood out in particular for a few reasons, which I think are best reflected by the two paintings to the left. Firstly, Fish's painting have a great sense of depth to them which she creates through the lighting cast by transparent objects. This is done through painting dull shadows in combination with vibrant colors. For example, in examining the first painting, it is clear that the light is coming from the upper-left of the image, and it casts and enlarged and bright red shadow, emanating from the light which passes through the liquid. What is fascinating in observing her paintings is seeing how she is able to construct these complex objects such as glass and plastic in a realistic way by purposefully not using strong lines and borders. People often instinctually want to define objects with lines, but Fish views transparency as just collections of colors and distorted shapes. We are only able to understand the idea of "glass" from her painting because she rejects the idea of painting a container, but rather a large group of varied colors. Fish depicts these objects, especially the plastic, by also considering the background and how it is projected onto the object. In this painting we see the orange, white light from the sun or some artificial light, which is found below the piece of plastic. The second painting I have chosen shows many of the same elements, but on a much more intensely realist scale. Again, the idea of grooves on what to appear to be salad dressing bottles, is not represented with defined lines of boxes and circles, but instead shades of yellow and green. The way Fish can create a golden-yellow liquid in the containers with a glossy texture, but also maintain the projection of other objects onto it with reds and greens, is astounding. Both of these paintings show techniques of transparency which I hope to use in my upcoming work.