Umbral Onions

Yesterday a neighbour gave me a bag of home-grown onions and garlic that were surplus to his requirements. Gratefully received. When I put them in a bowl their dried tendrils draped over the edge in a wonderfully informal fashion. The overhead light created some distinctively graphic shadows not only on the onions in the bowl but also on my kitchen work surface.

umbra

[uhm -br uh ]

noun plural um·bras, um·brae

1. shade; shadow. A region of complete shadow resulting from total obstruction of light.

‘umber’ earth pigments. If I was painting this, raw umber and burnt umber would be in the mix.

2. the invariable or characteristic accompaniment or companion of a person or thing.

The French Impressionist artists used ‘reflected’ blues and purples in their shadows.

3. a phantom or shadowy apparition, as of someone or something not physically present; ghost; spectral image.

It is a little more difficult to make an image that describes the etherial body of an object / person, although I have seen this clearly in ‘transfigurations’.

In Astronomy. see the Wiki link here for an illustration of the 3 distinct parts of a shadow:

1. Umbra:

a. the complete or perfect shadow of an opaque body, as a planet, where the direct light from the source of illumination is completely cut off.

b. the dark central portion of a sunspot.

2. Penumbra – a shadowy, indefinite, or marginal area. (from the Latin paene “almost”, “nearly” and umbra “shadow”).

3. Antumbra – is the region from which the occluding body appears entirely contained within the disc of the light source. (from the Latin ante, “before”).