Seascape Oil Painting

Seascape Oil Painting

Imagine you have an oil painting by an Old Master hanging on the wall of your living room. A Titian portrait, perhaps, or a Turner seascape. In daylight it lights up the room, but by night it fades into the background to become just part of the furniture. Unless, that is, you shine a light at it. Doing so will bring it back to life, restoring all its presence and fascination.

Few of us are fortunate enough to own an Old Master, but many of us are in possession of at least one tree or large shrub in our gardens. Like that Titian portrait or Turner seascape in the living room, this tree or large shrub is a dominant presence in the garden, shaping your landscape and drawing your eye to it. And it's a source of constant delight as the changing light through the day subtly plays on its leaves, bark and branches. Then, at dusk, it disappears, which seems rather a shame. And a lost opportunity. Because trees and large shrubs are natural candidates for lighting at night. Their sheer size gives them real presence, and their height adds a dramatic third dimension to garden lighting schemes which, if restricted largely to ground level, can feel a bit flat.

Trees and shrubs come in all shapes and sizes, so fortunately there are several ways to light them. The simplest and most obvious is to use a spike-mounted spotlight. You push the spike into the garden soil to secure the fitting in place, and you point the spotlight up at the tree...job done. This kind of light fitting is widely available with either a 12 volt dichroic halogen lamp or an LED. An LED will not have sufficient light output to illuminate a bigger tree - for that you will need halogen - but it will cope with lighting a medium-sized shrub or smaller tree.

There are two possible drawbacks to using a spike-mounted spotlight. The first is it can be swamped by low-growing foliage if you place it in a border where there is other planting. The solution is to use a pole-mounted spotlight. The uplighting effect will be the same - the only difference is the height of the pole raises the light above the understorey planting. These pole lights are available in 12 volt halogen or 240 volt metal halide, and some feature two spotlights mounted on the same pole for twice the light output. If you require a very high light output, Hunza's Twin Pole Light 35 Watt Metal Halide produces a light equivalent to six 35 Watt standard halogen lamps. That is a lot of light.

The other drawback is when the tree is surrounded by grass. If it is, you will have to remove the spotlight every time you mow the lawn, which is hardly an ideal arrangement. The solution is to use an uplighter that is recessed into the ground. These are widely available and the better versions can be mowed over without any damage to the fitting. Look for models with an adjustable lamp so you can direct the beam of light away from the vertical. This allows you to point the light exactly where you want to - especially useful if the uplighter cannot be recessed into the ground right by the tree trunk due to root congestion.

Which brings us to the next thing to consider...which part of the tree do you want to light? If the tree is columnar, this question doesn't really arise. A single uplighter placed to light the trunk will naturally light the branches and foliage as the beam of light becomes broader as it ascends. However, if the tree has a very broad crown, you may wish to place several uplighters a short distance from the trunk so the whole of the crown is caught in the vertical beams. If you adopt this solution, consider whether you also want an uplighter to light the trunk, particularly if the tree has attractive bark.

The size of the tree or shrub you wish to light will dictate which lighting technology offers you the best result. While normal 12 volt dichroic halogen lamps create enough light to illuminate medium sized trees (about 10-15 metres), anything larger will require a more powerful lamp. For example, the 65 Watt IRC halogen lamps in our Hunza IG1-11 Inground uplighters produce a light output equivalent to two 50 Watt standard halogen lamps. Alternatively, if you prefer a 240 volt light fitting, the 35 Watt metal halide version of the IG1-11 uplighter has a similar light output, yet is almost twice as energy efficient, helping you to be almost as green as the tree you're lighting.

Richard Reid is an author for Engineering with Light, a garden lighting specialist.

HELP, who's this artist.?

"I want to find out about an artist called jacmy,i have an oil painting(seascape)signed by said artist but am unable to find out any information about the person,did get 1 link to a gallery in the US that was selling another picture from him/her but no details, help would be most appreciated. thank you"

I found a link to the "Nutan Art Collection" which has a seascape by Jacmy. They claim that;
"These paintings are done by professional artists and almost all of them are signed by the artists. All of these paintings are at least 15 years old and are unstretched. At this time, we do not know the details of most of the artists and we seek your help in identifying those."
Looking at the rest of their pictures I would have said these are the products of a "painting factory" where teams of painters mass-produce pictures for the furnishing trade. It is highly unlikely that there is an individual called Jacmy.