It is Monday and I still have many questions about how this all works. I have talked to my friends and we can not figure out how comments are made on my site. Oh, well! Today's painting is "A Sunset Serenade"( I am sure that this title will please my dear friend Mary-the English teacher :) ) I tend to like working with landscapes. They give me the opportunity to create space. Hopefully, deep space is what the viewer sees. I always tell my lovely wife,Mary Anne, that I should paint only backgrounds.I know as I walk and I drive I am constantly scanning the area to see the values and sizes of objects. I have even been known to request that Mary Anne remember what we are seeing. It is nice to have another set of eyes- epsecially on someone who has a good memory. When I paint I realize that as long as I give the viewer a good shape of the object the color can be very subjective. Here I emphasize the warmth of the sunset by limiting my hues to the red end of the scale.
The elements are always on my mind. I think that is because I taught a beginning drawing and painting class for forty years. I stood while I painted this painting- not a typical procedure for me. There are tiimes that I put my right arm behind my back. This keeps me from getting too tight with my paiinting. I have an unsteady hand and keeping my forearm on the table helps stablize my hand movements. I loved using the line element throughout my composition.
