Painting into the Light

If you’ve ever looked at the dazzling light effects that Jenny Aitken suffuses into her paintings, you may have wondered how she achieves it. Now, in her first book about painting into the light, “contre jour” she generously reveals her secrets.

The book reads like a friend is at your shoulder sharing their experiences, borne from years of not only painting, but teaching. This understanding of what students of light may want to know ensures that the language and topics are accessible through straightforward language and examples, clearly laid out in a way that you can dip in and out of what interests you most.

While the book focuses on painting specific subjects contre jour, (with illustrated step by step projects on her personal approach to a wide array of motifs including seascapes, skies, snow portraits, woodlands, mountains and oystercatchers) it also offers more universal painting advice around central tenets of representational art. Tips on composition and contrast, simplification, brush language, and colour perception, will serve the reader well beyond the realms of contre jour.

With practical advice on topics such as indoor studio and outdoor painting set up, how to get the most from reference photographs, and how to evaluate work, you can feel how Jenny wants you to succeed in your own painting journey. It’s like popping a knowledgeable friend on your shelf!

-- Julie Dunster, Plein Air Artist

There are a lot of art instruction books out there, but this new one by Jenny Aitken is a gem. Having painted en plein air alongside Jenny on numerous occasions, I have always been amazed how she conjures up light, amplifying a light effect that sometimes doesn’t exist! This book explains how she does this in easy-to-understand, no nonsense terms, and this can be followed by both amateur students and seasoned professionals who want to apply these effects in their own work!

She shows in clear terms (and with excellent photos) what equipment she uses; the indoor and outdoor setup; the limited palette of colours she employs and the brushes she uses; and HOW the brushes are used.

Apart from being a very comprehensive instruction book, this is a lovely coffee-table type tome, with lots of Jenny’s beautiful paintings displayed on the pages. I thoroughly recommend it to artists of all abilities.

-- Peter Barker, Royal Society of Marine Artists

Contre-jour work is tricky at best and perhaps a bit specialist, but Jenny absolutely nails it. For some reason, oil painting books don't often excite me -- too worthy perhaps -- but this is something else. I don't think it's pushing things too far to say that it's one of the best books on painting light I've seen and would be worth a look even if oils are not your medium.

[...] You won't find pages of step-by-step demonstrations -- where these come, four stages suffice. What you do get are plenty of examples that can't help but inspire and lots of practical advice. This is a book to relish.

-- Henry Malt, The Artist * Vol 139 No. 5 *

As an experienced teacher, Jenny is able to demystify the process and provides practical guidance on how to capture light in oils -- from tonal control, finding the right colour, creating atmosphere, perspective and space [...]

Well illustrated techniques and detailed step-by-step demonstrations will move your oil-painting techniques forward and transform your understanding of how to capture light and colour in oils.

-- The Leisure Painter * Vol. 58: No,