Lately, I've been experimenting with the use of daylight in my still life paintings. Normally I have a spotlight attached to the ceiling in my studio and all of the windows blacked out. I had placed a modeling stand next to the window in order to possibly paint a portrait using a softer light. I haven't had too much luck getting models so I ended up placing a large wooden table on the stand with the idea that I could get a couple of setups going at the same time. After putting together an arrangement it suddenly occurred to me that maybe I should try uncovering the window and see what the light looks like. The window doesn't get north light so I left the shade on so that the light that does come in would stay pretty much the same for the entire session.
        The diffused daylight that washes over the still life is a much softer light than I'm used to. It's a little harder to find the core shadow edges and there is very little, if any, reflected light. It's taking some getting used to. The temperatures of the colors are different as well. The shadows tend to be cooler and the lights warmer. I'm not one to spend a lot of time thinking about warm and cool colors; generally I try to match what I see and the temperature takes care of itself. I try to avoid formulas that say when a shadow should be warm or cool because there are just too many exceptions to the rule. Usually I do best to trust my instincts, but the daylight paintings are forcing me to give these ideas a bit more thought. The paint handling has to be necessarily different because the transitions between tones are much more subtle and the forms tend to dissolve into the shadows.
      Usually you can tell which type of lighting a painter prefers. Artists who like to show a lot of detail in their work generally tend to use artificial lighting because it gives them more control and more time to work on an individual painting. Artists who work with daylight tend to be looser and more concerned with painterly qualities; working in a sense like an outdoor landscape painter. I guess it has a lot to do with your background and training. Most of the painters coming out of the Florence Academy of art use daylight for their still life paintings. I imagine that the FAA atelier has elaborate shading systems set up next to tall windows, something like that famous painting of the neo-classical artist David's atelier. The Grand Central Academy of art has an elaborate network of spot lamps with baffles and partial curtains designed to give each location a primary undiluted light source.
      Although I'm not a particularly tight realistic painter, I do enjoy working with spotlights. I like the drama of it. Each arrangement becomes a scene on a stage with leading and supporting players. Highlights become little comets flashing across the surface of objects. Shadows link up in unexpected ways, moving the eye in and out of the composition. When I was a kid growing up in the Bronx I loved to explore the network of alleyways and basement tunnels that all seemed to be one long maze. Daylight painting is more like a walk in the country on a late summer afternoon. Forms gently push forward from shadows that are like deep pools of water, seemingly endless and color filled.
      This is also the time of year when I try my hand at plein-aire painting. The idea being to go out and find a scene and paint it on the spot, in about three hours, on a small canvas. In this case I'm not letting the daylight into my studio, I'm in it. My canvas, pallete, colors are all bathed with the force of natures light unadulterated. It's both humbling and inspiring. You have to work quickly and trust your instincts because the light is guaranteed to change by the hour. You tend to have more "happy" accidents when working this way which is a good way to extend your learning  curve. It's easy in the studio to get bogged down into certain work habits and patterns and plein-aire painting is a good way to shake off some of the cobwebs.
   For me, painting is all about the light. I like to challenge myself to find the secrets inherent within each unique lighting situation. It's only when I start to make marks with my brush that I slowly begin to get that "aha" moment; "so that's what's going on!" One of the most enjoyable painting experiences that I've had was in the atelier where I used to study.There was a still life set up directly beneath a huge skylight. The light fell vertically down onto each object like a scene bathed in snow flakes and beneath object was a perfectly ringed eliptical shadow. I'm at the point where the memory of it has me considering putting a skylight in my studio. Anyways, I plan to continue working with daylight on a few more paintings, at least until I have to go back to work in September, and I've already got a vision in my head of a day lit still life where the light barely makes it over the edge of each surface (rim lighting), kind of like the grand canyon at sunrise. We'll see.