Monday, October 24, 2016

Lines Shapes Color Light

East wing Calder  ink and watercolor 5.5x8" by Meera Rao

"Colour are light’s suffering and joy."

~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe~

The East Wing of the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC reopened recently after extensive renovations and I had a great visit. This sketch was my second attempt to capture on paper the huge open room. The trademark glass ceiling by I M  Pei was the challenge I had to face! I had to slow down, first figure out the overall shape and then draw it section by section.  Photographing the ceiling and studying it every time I got confused helped me finish the sketch.  I think I spent so much time figuring out the ceiling that I lost steam for the rest of the sketch ! But I am pleased that I stuck to it :) 


The Color in a New Light exhibit at Natural History Museum in Washington DC

Name a topic that links science, history, art, and culture. How about color? - a small exhibit on Color in A New Light at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum covers this : Two Glass cases in the lobby were crammed with goodies: an anthracite coal, samples of  dyed silk, dyed ostrich feathers from long ago, Sir Isaac Newton's book Opticks, or, A treatise of the reflections, refractions, inflections and colours of light...London, 1704, Albert Henry Munsell's Atlas of the Munsell Color System [Malden, Mass.: Wadsworth, Howland & Co., Inc., Printers, ca. 1915] Gift of Binney & Smith, Inc., makers of Crayola Crayons and a lot more from the Smithsonian Library.

 "Journeying through the collections of the Smithsonian Libraries — from chemistry to catalogs, from colorblind tests to couture — we might see color in a new light." reads the explanation.  I spent an hour looking and reading the explanations. There is a great digital tour of the exhibit on their website to see up close things in those cases and read about them.  It is truly fascinating! 





From the book: Spectrum Analysis :Six lectures  By Henry E. Roscoe


Explanation of the spectrum from the book  Spectrum Analysis by Roscoe

8 comments:

Sadami said...

Hi, Meera, thank you very much for sharing a wonderful drawing and interesting information. Colours are fascinating topics. Best wishes, Sadami

Carol Blackburn said...

Wow Meera, that was some task sketching that room with all it's intricacies. It came out wonderful. I do get the feel of it's vastness.

padmaja said...

Very tough and complicated subject, well at least for me :-). Hats off to you fro thrying this out and landing up with a nice work! All the information you shared was interesting.

Meera Rao said...

Thank you Sadami :) color is so fascinating !

Meera Rao said...

Padmaja, thanks! I discovered somethings can only done very very slowly and methodically :) that was hard for me as I have to clamp down and concentrate hard!

Meera Rao said...

Carol, Thank you! so glad you liked it :)

ashok said...

Interesting! cheers meera :)

Meera Rao said...

Thanks @ashok!

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