Page 62 - Between light and shade

between light and shade, TRANSPARENCy and reflection

bouncing either directly or in a scattered manner
off all the surfaces that it falls on. These surfaces
themselves act as diffuse mirrors re-emitting a
small proportion of the natural light that reaches
them, and their colours “tint” the objects contai-
ned in the space that they enclose. It all takes place
as if our perception of nature and the living world
make the reflections of “natural” materials, such
as wood and stone, attractive and soothing to us.
The same applies to patterns involving fauna and
flora, even when reproduced in paint on paper
or fabrics. The same is not true of the surfaces of
walls painted in large blocks of uniform colour,
which are the manifestation of an abstract human
act. If they are not intended or anticipated artistic
expressions placed on view, they become more
insidiously intrusive and disturbing, the more
discrete the colour aims to be. This is how “off
white” shades (whose name is very appropriate) or
“tinted” greys seriously disrupt the perception of
a space. For a long time, I have been expressing a
desire for paint that is truly white, like that used
by painters (in gouache, acrylic or oil) or like talc
coated paper, or more simply like a whitewash, as
no industrially produced paint can do this. This
was still the case in 1997, and it is very annoying
that the past century’s industry is still as deficient
in this respect. Consequently, I turned to “pure”
greys, which are supposed to be a simple mixture
of white and black, and it is to François Cornélis,

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