LORI DUNN SCRATCHBOARD ART
promoting conservation through artistic efforts
Radiance
9 x 12
SOLD
As an artist specializing in achromatic (black and white) artworks, one has to constantly visualize light in new ways in order to remain creative. One of the concepts I’ve been exploring lately is how light is reflected through the lens of a camera.
Radiance is a study of bokeh lighting which I am rather enjoying and continuing to explore. The term “bokeh” originated from the Japanese word “boke” which means blur or haze. In photography, the word refers to the aesthetic quality of the blur produced in the out-of-focus parts of an image due to a shallow depth of field. Single points of light sometimes produce bokeh consisting of concentric circles of varying brightness. Differences in lens aberrations and aperture shape cause very different bokeh effects.
In this particular artwork, a backlit great blue heron provided the perfect situation to use the effect. No reference was used for the background, each circle was carefully thought out in terms of placement, size and value to indicate what areas are brighter.
Experimenting in this way with the medium of scratchboard presents many challenges as it is not easy to erase or reposition anything without degrading the surface of the board. Challenging myself to visualize something outside the mainstream, and create something unique in a black and white image, is what I hope to achieve.
