Wherever you look there are shadows behind what you see. Shadows give me a clearer picture of the subject that I focus on. This is true in my real life as well as in my paintings. I know that there is always more to what I see, so I will immediately look for the shadow to increase my understanding.
Shadow sometimes makes the subject more real and three dimensional.
Especially in portraits and figures of humans, their real selves are hidden in their shadows. It shows in the shadows of their eyes and in the creases of their faces, as well as in their twin shadow on the ground or wall.
I change the shading of the shadows depending on whether objects are far or close-by. I use bigger and darker shadows for closer objects and smaller and lighter shades on objects to emphasise distance. To do this I also use light and bright open spaces in the paintings, the contrast is important.
I sometimes use slightly wonky perspective to emphasize a mood, such as in the Fun Goa collection painting “Windy Day” where the feeling of the wind is shown in the dancing perspectives of different objects. Another artwork where this can be seen is in “What’s That?” The beds tilt towards the viewer almost asking the viewer to straighten them.
If I chose not to use shadow or use an uneven perspective, the painting will have an intended feeling of floating and disconnect.
I also like to play with reflection by using glossy resins that will reflect light and throw shadows underneath their application such as in “Indian Mermaid” and “Where is This”.