“There is not enough darkness in all the world to put out the light of even one small candle”
Robert Alden


It is in the darkest
night that a single
star shines brightest...


A glimmer of light cannot truly be seen without much that is dark, and darkness cannot truly be felt without shadowy forms rising from the blackness.


Wherever it is a literal manifestation in the work or an abstracted element, light compels the viewer. (Mary Todd Beam)


We see light, not dark. But it is in the dark that we feel goblins and ghosts.


Most people would guess that the sun is fifty or a hundred times brighter than the moon, but it's a half million times brighter – evidence of the amazing capacity of our eyes to adjust to light and dark. (James Elkins)



Don't just use light to illuminate... think about what light means in the context of the painting. (Martha Mayer Erlebacher)


I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day. (Vincent van Gogh)


There cannot be a shadow on top of a shadow. One shadow will cancel out the other one. Or the two together will form one totally new shape.


-The Art of Color, 1961
Colors are primordial ideas, children of the aboriginal colorless light and its counterpart, colorless darkness... Light, that first phenomenon of the world, reveals to us the spirit and the living soul of the world through colors. (Johannes Itten)



There are two kinds of light – the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures. (James Thurber)


Lincoln studied by the light of a fireplace. Mozart composed by candlelight. Galileo invented by oil lamp. Didn't they ever think to do their work during the daytime? (Jersey Tomato)