Britain gallery: Lighthouse

The spare lines of this lighthouse at Hurst Point on the Hampshire coast, opposite the

western end of the Isle of Wight, make for a pleasing composition, and the dash of green

on the window sill only serves to accentuate the lack of colour elsewhere. The strong

diagonal lines and the shape of the shadows all help strengthen the composition. This is

classically known as a 'high-key' picture, where predominantly light tones are complimented

by sparser dark tones, in contrast to my more usual pictures, which tend to be 'low-key' and

the opposite in tonal separation. My wife says the latter reflect my gloomy outlook on life,

but I say it's only because I find darker pictures easier to find, and they tend to be more

forgiving in the edit suite.

The spare lines of this lighthouse at Hurst Point on the Hampshire coast, opposite the western

end of the Isle of Wight, make for a pleasing composition, and the dash of green on the

window sill only serves to accentuate the lack of colour elsewhere. The strong diagonal lines and

the shape of the shadows all help strengthen the composition. This is classically known as a

'high-key' picture, where predominantly light tones are complimented by sparser dark tones, in

contrast to my more usual pictures, which tend to be 'low-key' and the opposite in tonal

separation. My wife says the latter reflect my gloomy outlook on life, but I say it's only because

I find darker pictures easier to find, and they tend to be more forgiving in the edit suite.

To the Whitehouse