Evening Shadows

Evening Shadows
4x4 Watercolor, pen and Ink

I love the afternoon light, particularly in the late Fall, when the sun sets early giving a brief golden glow to all it touches. The contrast with the deep shadows in the foreground is the hook. The three deckers are yellow and it's a great place to use the yellow/violet color harmony. This is an Urban scene in the Lithuanian Village area of Brockton. I'll work from this sketch to do this in oils where I think I can achieve more subtlety in the shadow area. Despite the heat we are enjoying an onshore sea breeze today and the tide is right to head to the beach with my book. Stay cool everyone!

The Foundry

The Foundry 
4x4 oil on board$100 plus S&H

I am fascinated by industrial scenes.  These complexes are really just big broad shapes and colors which makes them most interesting in terms of abstract design which is what each painting needs to be about. 
Abstract does not mean just throwing paint onto the canvas. In the best abstract paintings the eye moves over the canvas by design because the artist has a plan. This is not something I understood until I'd studied with some very good painters who pointed out the 'total picture'. We're never painting a flower or a beach scene. We're arranging paint into a beautiful composition on a canvas which just happens to end up looking like a flower or a beach scene. Each area of the canvas is equally important as the viewers eye moves around the picture.

One of my students on Thursday was a raw beginner and I must say I was impressed by his observational skills which included seeing reflections in the shadows and he also recognized that which I just stated. We're not painting lime slices it's about the big picture. The design. 

Nancy was on fire and very encouraging to Neal

Neal brought his sense of humor and he really 'got it'

We had fun.