And so it has come to be that the beauty of a Japanese room depends on a variation of shadows heavy shadows against light shadows – it has nothing else…..We do our walls in neutral colours so that the sad, fragile, dying rays can sink into absolute repose…. We delight in the mere sight of the delicate glow of fading rays clinking to the surface of a dusky wall, there to live our what little life remains to them.

Junichiro Tanazaki, In Praise of Shadows

In the blurred layers of dim, fluid and indistinct tones space seems that much more ‘human‘.

In the waning light the shadows are soft.

A neutral wall has a presence that is warm and soulful.

Nuanced and mellow, the warmth and dimness of shadows balance out the bold spectacle of sharp light; lightly brushed and delicately drawn.

There is a quietness in blurred light.

A grey day, a pale dawn.

Outside may be dreich and bleak, but in this room there is a glow that is still, and calm.