Dan Kitchener: An Artist Underground

During my research I stumbled across an artist named Dan Kitchener who caught my eye immediately. He specializes in canvas paintings and graffiti work within central London. What really grabbed my attention was his occurring pieces of the London Underground rail network and just how beautifully he painted them. His pieces represent such visual depth and outstanding lighting techniques, that I was so compelled by them, I had to get in contact to ask him some of my burning questions. I want to know what it was that inspired him to paint the Underground so much and how he went about producing light within his work. Most of his paintings involving the Tube network are primarily black and white pieces, with very subtle uses of colour to highlight small details of interest. The in which he projects a light source and accentuates the surrounding architectural design really inspired me, I just had to hear his thoughts behind his ideas. His representation of light also is extremely compelling and visually realistic to the eye. There are sources of light, which reflect off surrounding structures and materials, generating a mixed gradient of light, with different intensities and densities. This brings so much depth to his work that sets a dynamic atmosphere and sense of mood.


 Here are some of his paintings:

 
Here is a screenshot of the email I sent and my reply:

After reading through Dan's email, I was very inspired at his personal perspective of the London Underground. How it is an environment that never rests and is never still. It isn't a destination, it is always part of a journey and overlooked by most people who use it. It is interesting to see how Dan looks upon the Underground as 'a space between worlds' and he visualizes that space in his paintings. Being a resident in London, he too is exposed to the suburban transport on a regular basis, but is more fascinated by the environment than to ignore it, similar to how I looked upon it in my recent research. 

When it comes to lighting his environments, he uses a big source of light and let's the science do the rest. The intensity of main light source reaches all aspects of his paintings without brightly illuminating the piece. He uses purposefully strong contrasts between light and shadow to create atmospheric depth in his work. I liked how he mentioned in the email that not everything needs to be lit within a scene, just to let a larger light touch the edges of details or textures, allowing the human mind to make up the rest of the piece. It is with that  I believe his paintings look so stunningly atmospheric, because he knows he doesn't need a lot of light to bring out the smallest of details. The strong use of light and dark is truly innovative and easily the most inspiring pieces of work I have seen in a long time. I feel extremely fortunate to have located Dan and get to talk to him about his approach to lighting and also how he personally feels about an underground transport environment. I will most certainly take on board what he said in the email and transfer that knowledge in my own way.



Bibliography:

http://dankitchener.bigcartel.com/

http://www.dankitchener.co.uk/