Artists Squared Studios and Gallery
Open: May 22 to mid-October 2025
Gallery Hours: 12-6 PM, Wednesday thru Sunday
Closed: Monday and Tuesday
631 W Bayfield st, Washburn Wi
(952) 923-5222
(952) 923-5218
artistssquaredgallery@gmail.com

LAKE LIGHT

An extraordinary feature of the
Bayfield Peninsula and the Apostle Islands

J. R. Lince-Hopkins

The shores of Lake Superior along the Bayfield Peninsula in Wisconsin experience a unique quality of light.  The lake’s vastness and massive reflective surface is the source of this unique light. The effects are especially noticeable during the spring, summer and fall as blue skies and amazing clouds predominate around the Apostle Islands and the three sides of the Bayfield Peninsula which sticks out into Lake Superior. The effects of “Lake Light” increases the luminosity of clouds, water surfaces, and landscapes.

Lake Light is very similar to Dutch Light made famous by artists such as Vermeer and Rembrandt and later, the British Artists JMW Turner and John Constable.  Natural light from the sun is made up of all possible orientations and colors of light. However, light reflected by the surface of a large body of water is horizontally polarized and colors are softened and enhanced in luminosity, especially near the horizon,

Polarized light enhances the contrast between colors.  The shorter wavelengths of violet, blue, and green are more scattered while the longer wavelengths of yellow, orange and red are less affected by polarization. The occurrence of horizontally polarized light creates a soft, diffused quality especially in the shorter wavelength of colors.  Blue light tends to scatter more, hence the extraordinary sky vistas of the Bayfield Peninsula and Apostle Islands during morning and midday while yellow, orange and red light up the evening skies with incredibly amazing sunsets and the soft glows of twilight.