Chiaroscuro

The interplay of light and dark with strong contrast obsessed many painters. Caravaggio was one of them. The drama of intense lighting, modelling forms strongly against a deep background, as if they are bathed in a spotlight in front of an inky blackness was developed during the Italian Renaissance and developed well into the 17th Century.

Chiaro means ‘clear or bright’, from the Latin clarus, and oscuro means ‘dark or obscure’, from the Latin obscurus.

It’s Caravaggio I feel I’m trying to emulate in this depiction of a Great Crested Grebe. Just without the brawling or violent murder.