Back Street, Bellows Falls, 20″ x 16″, UART 320

Happy New Years (I think!)  Not sure what the coming year will be like, but at least I can spend a good part of it painting with my friends.  I recently spent time in the studio prior to beginning classes this week. Actually, I spent innauguration day in the studio doing the underpainting for this!  I decided that I needed bright cheery colors and I had two new sets of Caran d’ache hard pastel “cubes” so I used them almost exclusively for the underpainting.

A neighbor came in after I had completed the underpainting and told me I should stop right there and not do anything else. But, of course, I couldn’t do that! But I tried to keep the happy feeling of the place, even though it was an overcast day.  I also was trying to make this painting a little more stylized and not quite so real. I kept the buildings and fire escape on the left fairly simple, but had to add a lot of detail on the right. I also worked at keeping the cars blocky and undetailed.

I brought the picture to a critique session and the original photo blew away!  Then I realized that I hadn’t added the wires, which I really liked in the photo, as they connected the two buildings. So I added them with no reference. They might be a little low, but I think they work (???)

The color palate is pretty much red, green and violate with a few more neutral colors. I started with a lot of violet in the sky, then added more light yellow and orange to the bottom to brighten it up. I kind of liked the flat orange, but …

Any comments will be greatly received!

Underpainting