Commissioned as 'the house I grew up in', Colleen Sullivan's parents still live here. The house faces north, so it took a number of visits to figure out the best sun light. It turned out to be 6:30 pm in August, when tree shadows appeared on the side walls & as a bonus, the flags are shading the entrance. However, I wanted the trees the colors of Fall so it is a creative jumble of references. As many times as I drove by, the car was always in the driveway & I felt like a stalker taking reference photos while her parents watched tv in the summer room/garage. Therefore, they are here & silhouetted in the painting.
The second dilemma to create this painting was...what color is the house? Seeing the photos taken in evening light added a lot of gold, but it looked very true blue as well as nearly black at other times. Imagine my surprise when Colleen said it was a greenish charcoal--and I had painted it dark blue. It was an easy change which worked out better than if I had planned it, glazes of cadmium yellow toned the blue to green & emphasized the elusive light while creating additional texture. Success!
Lights in the Garage, 18x24, oil 2009
No comments:
Post a Comment