Sunlit Vines, 24″ x 20″ UART 400

Reference photo

This is probably one of the most complicated paintings I’ve done!  I saw this scene with my friend Sunny and we were both entranced with the light hitting the red leaves of the vines. But the rest of the scene was filled with pavement and dead leaves!  As you can see from the photo, the entire left side is covered with a large green tree or vine. I had another photo that showed what was behind it. I used that for the fence and garage, but I made up the pile of leaves in the bottom left. Really like the way that came out!  I also reduced the size of the tree at right, which was much larger. I thinned it down and put some space between the two large branches.  This meant that the shadows on the walk had to be adjusted.

When I did the underpainting, I brushed the color of the buildings up into the sky, trying not to have hard edges. I really wanted the background to be as abstract as possible. I used a lot of local color in the underpainting, using yellow for the sky and all the sunlit areas below.  I started with the sky more yellow, but decided there was too much of a discrepancy with the light below, which is cooler. I added more whited yellow to the sky, then added the same yellow below, but it still looks quite different. However, it would be!  And it is in the photo, as you can see.  The lattice work on the fence was something I’ve never done. I started with dark blue behind. In the two left portions of the fence, I just used a diagonal stroke of brown going in one direction. For the part at right, it was more head on and I could see both foreground and back pieces. So I added strokes in one direction, further apart than the others. Then I added some of the back pieces going in the opposite direction. I added small pieces of light to indicate openings.  For the shadow with light pieces at bottom, I just added the light dots and smudged them a bit. I couldn’t make the little triangular shapes I saw in the photo!

I do NOT want to be a hyperrealist (this seems to be the new fad).  But I felt that this painting deserved really careful attention in the fence, walkway and leaves. I’m very happy with the way it came out. (And I finally got the basketball hoop the right shape!)  Thanks to my students who gave me advice, including Sunny, who also had the same set of photos!

A very happy Thanksgiving to you all. I’m so thankful to be an artist and to be surrounded by the wonderful folks who take classes with me and have studios at Washington ArtWorks.