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Welcome to my world of art. Painting is my joy of life.

Monday, December 19, 2011

Moonlit Fantasy


There are times when the mood is on you and this was one of those times.  I had been looking at an intriguing play of light in the mountains and thought that it would be fun to work it into a painting.
Its pretty much traditional to begin a painting with a values sketch - to work it all out with pencil and paper before making a commitment with paint. But get this.

I playfully painted the sky and thought, it would be good to put some trees in the moonlight, and the rest went from there - one whimsical brush stroke after the other, with the muse leading the way.

 Its basically a pretty straightforward work; sky, hills trees, water and some mist. But, its not what you paint - but how you paint.  The subject is subordinate to how you arrange your subject matter and how you work your values into it. This creates atmosphere.

I knew I had a winner, when I left it sitting on my kitchen table.  Everyone who saw it, "ooh'd and aaah'd.

It was fun to play with the diffusion of moonlight, and spread it into the painting.  I intentionally laid in a faint band of mist on the left side, to catch the moonlight and carry it forward into the middle zone of the work.  In the end, I tossed in a few touches of light on the grass and on the foreground trees and a few little touches of light, here and there to give the impression of sparkle. (can you find them at the bottom). I balanced these off with touches of starlight at the top. Ahh the joys of being a painter!

For those with an analytical spirit, this work measures in at 46cm x 60cm (16"x24").
And finally - it hasn't found a wall to hang on at this time of writing.