Counterchange

Tonight I'm writing about "counterchange". What is "counterchange" you ask? Counterchange is the effect of using dark against light and the balancing effect of light against dark. Almost all art has counterchange. I think of portraiture where the lit side of the face is often set against a dark object or background while the shadow side of the face is made to pop with a light object or background. Almost all pictures have counterchange which leads the eye or often "pops" an object into 3D. Often when painting complex kind of objects, I make the counterchange occur in some way whether it is there or not. It's often good to cheat the truth to arrive at a better painting. I commonly cheat while painting people or flowers or animals. Even in the above barn and house, there is some counterchange cheating.

For a quick example: When I painted this painting the pine tree in the background did not approach the chimney. I happened to want that sun hitting the chimney to stand out a bit so I painted in that tree behind it. Pop, goes the chimney. I could have brought the branch over to the right side and then the chimney would have a little less "pop" there. When I painted the left side of the roof , the tree behind it caught a lot of sun and I didn't like that. I painted the tree dark so that the left gable end would come alive with the sunlight hitting it. I wanted more counterchange there. There is no right or wrong way to enact counterchange. It really is about what works in the painting and pleases the eye. I could have not made the barn stand out so much but in my heart I felt that painting was about the stability of the various buildings and the attractive morning sunlight shining off their impressive facade. Another artist with a different temperament would have made the painting have different counterchange and different effects. Isn't art fun?