Painting with light

 

I start this new photography blog, Cascade of Light, not just with a cascade of light but with a torrent. Inspired by the The Daily Post weekly photo challenge, I had had it in mind for several days to do something with the mix of paint brushes that sits on my desk, feeling it an appropriate response to this week’s challenge, Variations on a Theme. And then yesterday afternoon, I glanced over to see a brilliant, winter light pouring through the window and highlighting my intended subject. A variety of brushes, big and small, their hairs tinged with differences in colours past, were highlighted in the vivid light against a backdrop with its own variation – an old, heavily paint-laden canvas on one side, rich with thick colour, and on the other, a clean, white canvas still awaiting its first touch of paint and bathed in light and shadows. NOW was the moment.

Time and light are intimately woven. And between those tight threads, we often find the spirit of inspiration and creativity resonating. It may come by happenstance or by design or, as is often the case, by some cosmically cascading combination of the two, but finding (and for the artist, capturing) the right light at the right time can be an uplifting experience. Here, I found it poetic to see the paintbrush shadows fall on the fresh canvas, as if foretelling, yes, foreshadowing no less, their future touch upon the waiting fabric. Past, present and future all together in one great ray of light.