Here's another step in the process. I don't think that many readers are engaged with this, considering that the readership is down. Nonetheless, first is a detail of the sky. All the paint is transparent. Notice how the canvas weave makes the blue sparkle. In most paintings, I paint an opaque sky, but in moonlight I often leave the sky as veils of transparent color. I think it heightens the contrast between the ethereal and the material.
The next three are the last couple of days, and the fourth is the state as of this evening.
As you can see, it's gotten a good deal darker, and more saturated. You can also see that I'm avoiding the lit side of the house, though I did change it's value and color somewhat.
By the way, I think I'm such a fan of moonlight because one of the very earliest images I can remember is an N. C. Wyeth illustration from Treasure Island, featuring Blind Pew making his way down the road from the Admiral Benbow Inn.
It's wonderful to see the phased progression of your creative process.... A wonderful moonlit painting. Thanks for sharing this with us.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Sunny. Happy painting!
DeleteBlog readership is probably pretty arbitrary. Lots of childhood references/memories in your writings... ... the start of Treasure Island is a triumph of the imagination..
ReplyDeleteYou're entirely right, Jon.
DeleteGetting excited about painting la vallee noire?
A justification from Camus, tonight, re childhood.
It's getting spookier! Thanks for sending these.
ReplyDeleteGhosties and goblins, Anika! Don't look behind you.
DeleteI've been watching this painting intently. Your color sense and ability to balance a composition is amazing. I know you have worked a LOT from observation. But your ability to make up landscape elements and get them to look as if you had done them outdoors from observation is un equalled.
ReplyDeleteOne suggestion from someone who can't match your versatility in any way: the perspective evident in the horizontal elements in the highest house need tweaking. The horizon line is always at eye level. Also, the horizon itself is at eye level. The horizon in this painting is somewhere hidden behind that line of trees in the distance.
Straight lines drawn along any actual horizontal elements in buildings should converge on that horizon, straight ahead of your line of sight. But those line when drawn from the tops and bottoms of your windows converge above the distant building, in the sky.
I have loved the colors and textures of this painting in all its permutations. The sun-filled happy colors of daylight are gone now and it's taking on a dark mysterious mood, which I also love.
Sutrent, thanks for your long comment....a first, methinks. Do you wanna send a photo of where you live/paint?
DeletePerspective, except aerial , has always been the bane of my work. You are entirely right, re fixed principles. That, of course, is why I' m stalling!
Still, I like Cezanne's still life, cock-eyed though it may often be.
The perspective identifies where you, the viewer, are located. So beware of necessarily supposing that your feet are on the edge of the brook at the bottom. You might equally be on a bank of similar height, looking across to the house, somewhat flattening out the angle.
Nonetheless, you are entirely right in your chiding!
Because the moonlight mood is what I care about, I'll try to find a way to comply whilst not being chained by the facts of the matter.
Thanks very much for commenting.