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Saturday, April 19, 2008

Sunset over Eastport

After painting in pastel exclusively for nearly a month, I've been hankering to get back into the oils. Not only have I really missed the feeling of working in oil, I also felt like I needed to get the kinks out of my unused "oil muscles." I'm teaching a workshop in both media for New Hampshire Plein Air next week, and I want to be ready!

I don't normally paint late in the evening, but we've been having warm, gorgeous sunsets. (Sunset is around 8:15 with twilight ending a half hour later.) Around 7, I took out my Guerrilla Painter 6x8 ThumBox, found a good overlook toward the west, and painted this little piece with the paintbox perched in my lap.

"Sunset over Eastport"
5x7, oil, en plein air


The air seemed full of light, and you can see how it warmed up the air in front of the distant, shadowed hills near Eastport, Maine. To my eye, the air looked nearly green, and so I painted it that way. Because a warm color like green wants to come forward, it was important to include the red field in the foreground. Being a warmer color, the red comes comes forward even more, effectively pushing back the green.