Painting Into the Light - by Jenny Aitken (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Known for her techniques for painting light on water, Jenny Aitken delivers perfect guidance to the intermediate artist on how to paint light in plein air and much more.

Learn how to successfully paint scenes that that capture magical effects of light from behind the subject. Good contre-jour - painting into the light - artworks cause the viewer to squint, with light seeming to glow from the canvas. They can look like a kind of magic, with their hazy light and colour singing out. This book demystifies lighting in oils, and provides a practical guide to the process, showing exactly how to create the illusion.

Inside, you'll find a wealth of information on simplification, tonal control, capturing accurate color, working both indoors and outdoors, painting landscapes and still life, creating atmospheric depth, and even mastering the illusion of space. Through detailed step-by-step demonstrations and beautifully illustrated techniques, Jenny Aitken reveals how to infuse every painting with vibrant, lifelike light. A section on troubleshooting tricky paintings will show the reader every painting is salvageable, but with an understanding of light and colour, it's much more likely that they'll find success the first time round.

Review Quotes

Art Book Review - May 2024

Contre jour is a tricky technique to pull off successfully and, let's be honest, not something you're going to attempt every day. I think we can therefore file this under "niche". Sometimes, however, the subject you want only works in a certain light and that's where Jenny comes to the rescue.

This is actually about a lot more than just working with the sun in your eyes and is, in fact, a rather good guide to handling light in general. It's worth noting at this point that Jenny is an oil painter but even if this isn't your medium, she still has a lot to say that I think you'll find relevant. Watercolourists will have to adapt the way they handle highlights, but the basic compositional principles are the same.

The bulk of the subjects here involve water, but there are some landscapes and even figure work where Jenny will show you how to retain facial detail even when contrast is considerably subdued. She is also rather good on recession when the answer isn't to fade to blue and on shafts of sunlight coming through a woodland.

Think of this as one of the best books on painting light with the emphasis on handling one of its tricker aspects and there is a very great deal to like here.

About the Author

For Jenny Aitken, teaching painting is an absolute passion - her main aim is for students to be encouraged, informed and creatively enthused. She began tutoring and demonstrating ten years ago, and now runs online courses and art holidays in the UK, Italy and France.
Since graduation in Art & Art History from Aberstwyth University, she has exhibited widely and won many awards. She was elected an associate member of the Royal Society of Marine Artists in 2021, and won the Topbond Marine Award in 2022.

Jenny is a regular contributor to The Artist Magazine, course tutor, and an online tutor, with a series of 25+ modules on painting in oils and acrylics. She also produces shorter painting videos on YouTube (@jennyaitkenart) .

Jenny lives in Derbyshire in the UK.