A Stranger Things Painting That Lights Up After Dark

A good Stranger Things painting should feel a little uneasy even in daylight. The Shapie’s canvas sets a red sky and the characters against a darker world below. The longer you look, the more the division between the two parts starts to feel like part of the story.

Read the image from top to bottom

In daylight, try looking at the piece as a single composition. Follow the red tones across the upper part, then let your eye move into the shadowed section. The two parts give the picture depth and a reason to keep looking beyond the characters you recognise.

A painting like this can carry a wall on its own. That gives you room to place a small collection of books or objects elsewhere, where each piece can be seen clearly.

Switch to the view you would see at night

When the integrated LEDs are on, selected details take on more presence. The red sky and the shift into darkness are good places to start comparing the two views. Pay attention to where your eye goes first in each version.

The same change can feel very different against a white wall or beside a warm lamp. If you want the light to feel like part of the picture, sit back a few steps and judge the whole wall. The strongest impression comes from seeing the brighter passages in relation to the shadows around them.

Find an evening ritual for it

This is the kind of image you might switch on before a film, or leave lit for a short while as the main lights go down. Give it a spot where you can still see the composition when the television is off. A wall near a chair or shelves can make the picture part of the room even on nights when you never turn on the screen.

Switch between the two views of the Stranger Things painting →