Red, White, and Blue (Frederick), 14″ x 11″, Uart 320

Underpainting, stage 1

Underpainting, stage 2

Partial completion (where i began today)

I spent the morning in the studio with two others, keeping apart.  Nice to have company. Very sad to have to end my classes with no idea of when they will start up again (or where!).  But hopefully, we’ll all get through this and move on to better times.  So, anyway, this is a painting I began a week or two ago.  I loved the colors in the buildings and the two white vehicles in front, as well as the white roof and the angle of the sidewalk.  I did a little simplification, leaving out a tree on the left and another sign on the right above the stop sign.  Also left out the “Popcorn” sign in the window of the red building!

The title came to me when I took the picture.  There is of course, no real white in this picture. But I think there is enough light areas to read as white in shadow.

For the underpainting, I used a fairly dark green in the sky as the sky color was intense.  Then red under blue and blue under red.  For the vehicles it was just easier to use the blues and blue greens that I ended up with.

The really “aha” moment was when I used a dark turquoise blue on top of the pure blue that I had in the building at left.  If really made it look sunlit.  Then I added the reds and an orange on the left edge.  (Note: digital photography always seems to emphasize oranges and reds. In the painting it’s not this extreme.)

Most of the real detail was done today–the lightpost and signs and the vehicles. I used a lot of soft pastels in the broader areas of the buildings, Giraults and some soft in the vehicles, and some hard pastels to do the signs.  For the sidewalk, I used an off yellow with a very light violet on top to tone it down.  I was pleased with the effect.

For the road, I used a medium dark blue, then a violet over the blue, allowing some of the red violet underpainting to show through.  Put in the yellow lane marker, then brushed some pink over it to combine the colors from above.  Finally, I took the same blue that I used in the sky and added some of it to the road.  And a little soft yellow white was added to the back of the car.

I’m quite happy with this picture–and with the gallery.  I was really amazed to learn on Saturday night that someone had bought one of my paintings!  I’ve only been there a few weeks and there IS this virus!!!  Nice that people are finding ways to still enjoy lifel and support artists and gallery owners at the same time.

Stay as safe as possible.  I know it’s pretty hard. We all have to eat!  And it’s even harder for those living alone.  I”m looking forward to throwing a party for all of my students once this thing is past.