Autumn’s Brilliance Adamsville, R.I., 12″ x 16″ Uart 320

Reference photo

Underpainting, hard pastel and alcohol

I had a few free hours today and decided to go to the studio.  I had already found a photo to paint from and done and compositional drawing and had it on the board.  But the real challenge in the picture was that it was really blah!  It was taken in autumn and there were wonderful reds on the trees by the gas station but not here by the lake!  Adamsville is a lovely small town  on the border of Mass. and R.I. and I’ve been there to paint and film many times.  In looking over potential photos a week ago, I realized that this one–though lacking in color–had wonderful shapes in the buildings.  So I decided to do it and envisioned making the tree red and the shadowed white buildings shades of blues and greens.

For the buildings, I used several colors in each to give the sense of shadow, not wanting flat colors.  I played with really deep darks and bright lights, to emphasize the idea of a bright, sunny day.  The backlighting of the tree was one of the things I thought could be most appealing and I think that it’s worked.  I used dark green, then a dark red, with brighter reds and oranges on the sides, and a duller red in the reflection.

The water was extremely easy to do!  I used a blend of violets grayed blues and a little of the sky color and burnished it all with a Girault.  Then added the light on the water with a very light blue green soft pastel.  Of course I had to make up the red reflections!  But I think they work OK.

I’m happy that I found this picture and saw the possibility in it.  I’ll include it in my spring show called “Shorescapes”.  It may be a little inland, but there is water and it’s very close to the ocean!

Hope you all have a lovely Christmas — or had a wonderful Hannukkah!  2019 promises to be anything but boring!!!