‘Rain Journeys to Twilight’ Painting Collection
Virtual rendering of paintings in a gallery setting
ARTIST STATEMENT (LONG-FORM VERSION)
There’s something enchanting about the magical time after sunset, yet before the deep darkness of night. There is a last glow, a last light that emanates from the horizon, contrasted against a deep shade of dark blue, a flicker, a flash, and then it is dark. This slow journey from daylight through twilight eases the world into reflection, a remembrance of the day observed through.
Rain at night distorts forms and shadows, the last remaining elements of light refract off the countless raindrops, bouncing the last of the visible light and color around the landscape.
There is a stillness to the steely waters of twilight that lends itself to quieting the mind for the night ahead — an unburdening of the soul from the day. Twilight is a poetic time, full of nuance, shadow, and light play. Rest is on the horizon, and one must approach night before a new day begins.
At early nightfall on a pond, these paintings mark the brief transitional shift between sunset and nightfall. During this time, all visual details of the day fade away into simpler forms, shapes of silhouettes and shadow, of reflected light or the absence of it. In these paintings, I express my fascination with the intensity of the blues in the sky at this time, the glow of last light that they project, and how those blues descend from sky to water, skipping along raindrops on their way down. I’m also intrigued with the meandering appearances of shapes that the reflections of last light in the water form, some gradual nuanced blues and light gradients, fading into the blackness of the pond water and silhouettes of landforms present. The reflected shapes are sculpted and contained by the contrast of the water’s darkness.
There is something to seeing the true form of terrain unhindered by details at day’s end — during the sunlit times, there’s usually so much bustle, so many things to think about, take care of and do, so many details to track, and so many logistics to process, that the brain becomes weary of keeping up with it all. At dusk, those visual details fall away, so that the mind can rest in the simplicity of light and dark.
Rain at night forms a veil, a blanket that wraps the viewer up and tucks them in for the night. The gentle rhythmic pattering of rainfall forms an audio blanket in which to fall asleep. Dusk and rain thus arrived in their journeys to twilight.
