Thursday, March 6, 2008

Light Series 2 - Art Gallery

Here is a picture from a small gallery in downtown Stafford, Va. This is a picture I was able to take in the lower level of the gallery. The other part of the gallery is right off the street and the passing cars create a horrible glare from the glass onto the exhibits. One of the only lighting patterns I have noticed from visiting this gallery is that there is track lighting where each painting/piece has its own spotlight. I think in many other circumstances this would work well however there is a glass and frame that protects the art. This glass creates a reflective property that bounces the light around too much making it hard to concentrate on the individual pieces. In addition, as you are walking the the space your own shadow gets in the way of the light. This could be because the ceiling is so low. The track lighting that is used is good for an art gallery because they are flexible. They can be arranged differently as new art comes in. Recommendations would be perhaps using a different type of light that doesnt have as much of a glare on reflective surfaces. Also I know there isn't much you can do about the height of the ceiling since there is another level about it but I was thinking a wallwashing uplight might make the space seem larger. The distracting shadows might not be as strong this way. I wasn't sure what was being used, I assumed it was an L.E.D. of some sort... the lady I asked didn't know either. The hallway crossbeams on the ceiling also create an interesting affect from the luminaires. This presents an opportunity to group particular pieces together between the beams or have more emphasis on one compared to another.

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