Painters Influence

Introduction

Paintings as a topic is something I have wanted to write about since the beginning. During the course of my filming I have found art to not only be a great source for inspiration but also a lesson in lighting. The first painter who has grabbed my attention is Italian-American Rico Lebrun and the second is Swiss surrealist painter H.R. Giger.

Rico Lebrun

A quote of Lebrun’s that first got me interested in his work comes from the College Museum of Art site; “(Lebrun) believed in art that was engaged as having a responsibility to deal with the existential theme of the human predicament, to address the evils of the modern world”.  I fully agree with this statement, art like film can influence the opinion of millions on a topic they have no prior knowledge or experience with. It is a painter or filmmaker’s responsibly therefore to depict the harsh reality of the world in a responsible way. This quote had me hooked and encouraged me to view his work.

Through Lebrun’s collection of paintings there was one picture in particular that caught my eye, the Genesis mural, created at Pomona College, California.

Lebrun uses a number of techniques to bring the viewers attention to the figure in the centre. To begin with, it is the largest object of the painting, the contrast is high and as already stated it is positioned in the centre. The size and position are the more obvious reasons for why it stands out, what really struck me however was how the high contrast draws the eye exactly to it. This explains my liking for previous examples I have listed through the course of these blogs, like ‘The Exorcist’ and ‘Raging Bull’. Both have dim lighting however the contrast is altered when the cinematographer wants the audience to pay close attention to a significant piece of information.

Upon first viewing this I found it difficult to determine whether or not this used naturalistic or stylistic lighting. Naturalistic because the contrast on the background objects is quite soft, giving the impression that the sun is beginning to set but then stylistic because the centre object has a higher contrast.

After reading up on chiaroscuro however I learnt that if a picture has a high contrast between light and dark with a dark background then it will tend to lean more to a stylistic approach. It then became very clear to me that this is a stylistic painting; the corners are dark yet the background is dimly lit. This further confirmed to me that a stylistic approach is what I’m aiming for as it is completely in my control to create my own style like Lebrun has done.

My observations for Lebrun’s Genesis Mural on lighting can be applied to his other work that is included below.

A small observation I also made whilst looking at Rico's other work, especially with the picture to the right, is that the faces are always darkened. As learnt in lectures, A.L.Yarbus states that the eye will natural be drawn to the face so the higher contrast on the face the more effective it is. Rico quite clearly goes against this form, at first the eye doesn't know where to look at which I find to be far more creative and therefore interesting.

H. R. Giger

I first became aware of H.R. Giger the same way many others have, for his academy award winning design of the Xenomorph in Ridley Scott’s ‘Alien’. His other work is a lot to take in at first viewing and truth be told the gothic imagery of skulls and the sexual themes is not to my liking as there is little humanity to be found in these paintings making it hard to relate.

However just because some aspects of his work is not to my personal taste does not mean I find Giger to be talentless, on the contrary similar to Lebrun’s work Giger’s lighting and dark contrast is what I’m greatly fond. In this picture Giger has used the three point lighting method to create an extremely mysterious and daunting image. With the harsh key light positioned directly above the subject’s head the eyes are completely darkened by the shadows of the eye socket, much like Gordon Willis’s work on ‘The Godfather’.

Unlike much of Willis’s cinematography, Giger has made the light source much closer to the subject’s face so that the other features are very bright. This is extremely stylistic however as I doubt you could have such a high contrast between two features which are so close to each other. Nonetheless it illustrates how effective contrast can be in creating a moody atmosphere.

Conclusion

All of Giger’s work and Lebrun share a continuity of dark, eerie images. I fully believe that this is why they are so renowned, they have stuck to a style and pushed the limits of what can be seen as stylistic without treading into an absurd territory.

What I will take away from this blog is to push my harsh contrasting style even more then what I was planning on for a dark atmospheric style. Though Gordon Willis is still predominately the major influence for my work, Giger and Lebrun have taught me to be more experimental.