This sunset was nearly as spectacular as Thursday night’s, with the added bonus of showing vivid colors earlier. So, I was able to capture most of the color before the light turned too dark for painting.
I may tweak the foreground before I say that this sketch is completed… or I may leave it as-is, since that retains the integrity of it as a plein air sketch.
My highest priority was to paint the colors in the sky, and then the vivid blues and greens that appeared on the hillside.
Every morning, I’m excited to wake up and see how my sunset paintings look, if the scene was worth painting.
When I complete an oil sketch like this and the natural light is low, I can’t see the colors… not really. Artificial light mutes the yellows and greens, so it’s difficult to tell how vivid they are.
This morning, this sketch was better than I’d hoped, given how quickly I worked. This painting probably took about 15 minutes. It’s 9″ x 12″ on stretched canvas.
The view is looking southwest, in the general direction of Concord, New Hampshire. The hills are probably in Northfield, or maybe Salisbury (NH).
The medium is, as (nearly) always, water-soluble oil paints. I didn’t underpaint this canvas, so the colors are a little different than some of my other work.
Right now, a few things are difficult to cope with. A lot of my day is more-or-less on autopilot, and anything that isn’t a daily routine is falling through the cracks. I look at my naked canvases and realize that I’d forgotten to underpaint them.
However, as we cross our fingers and hope that my mother will recover and resume a relatively active life, there has been a silver lining: I’m still reminded, almost daily, of the importance of the art.
Yes, I write articles & books. I do quirky research in unorthodox fields. People often misestimate how seriously I take that, so I keep it very separate from my artwork.
However, the legacy that an artist leaves behind is the art. While I’m never sure if people clearly “hear” my voice in my writing, the art is truly me, heart and soul.