Welcome to
The Painting Lesson
by Linda Carson
big black pig studio
98 King St. N., Waterloo Ontario Canada
www.bigblackpig.com
Fluorescence
Fluorescent colours look extra bright. They're that handful of colours sometimes informally called "neon." Under normal daylight, fluorescent materials absorb some wavelengths of light and reflect others, just as other materials do. But when they absorb the (invisible) ultraviolet light, they emit it again almost immediately, as visible wavelengths. So they look brighter than other colours because they've translated some unseen ultraviolet light into longer wavelengths that we can see.
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For example: The ruffled shapes (above) are white edged with assorted fluorescent colours. |
Did you follow that? So what happens under a so-called "black light," a light fixture that emits only ultraviolet light? Under black light, most things look dark, but fluorescent colours "glow in the dark" of black light.
Back to the main lesson?Art & Text (C) Linda Carson 2002
Loosely translated, that means:
"Please don't copy this material or redistribute it
in some other form, for any reason.
This is my livelihood."