Evening Light

Tiiu Pallo-Vaik has been catching light on canvas for years. Her 1979 painting Light in Space is an exemplary work, which has brilliantly handled this difficult task and now belongs to the collection of the Art Museum of Estonia. There the artist has tried to bring together and analyse the manifestations and effects of both artificial and natural light. Completed last year, the oil painting Evening Light is based on a natural motif executed in a way that is characteristic of the lightness and transparency of watercolour. The veiled weight of the painting is achieved by a fine pattern of lines covering the surface. Jaan Elken writes: “In Evening Light (oil on canvas, 2019), the semi-abstract landscape flooded with refined and warm evening light, the artist has covered her landscape image that reminds us of the old masters with its sensitive post-impressionist colour palette, with an autonomous, sharp pattern of lines reminiscent of print art. Due to this, the first visual impression of the painting is that of an expensive rug. Reading two so-called artistic texts on top of each other is visually challenging for the viewer, and just like when looking at a landscape through a dense mesh fence, our eyes get confused, and lose focus for a while. This coexistence of op art and classical painting is an innovative experiment, at least for our local cultural scene.” (http://mona.ee/tiiu-pallo-vaik-ohtune-valgus/)