One of the many benefits from having a career as an artist is being able to take a break from time to time and go for a walk. I'm fortunate to live next to a nature reserve and walking there is one of my favorite things to do. I often pass the same way so as to act as an observer noticing the subtle changing of the seasons throughout the year. One evening in early Winter, I noticed a subtle glow of golden light along the horizon and decided that this was enough of a starting point for a painting. The overcast sky gradually gave way to clearing in the west and although the sunset wasn't particularly spectacular, it was quite moving all the same. The evening light illuminated the scene in a subtle way so I used a darker line of trees to help focus on the horizon line keeping the foreground simple to help lead your eye into the painting.I have painted this simple theme quite a few time already and am sure that I'll do more like this expanding on the experience - most of my work does seem to follow in a series. These paintings probably mean a lot more to me than the viewer and bring back powerful feelings of how deeply I was moved by what I saw and felt on my evening walks. This oil is 12" X 16".
6 comments:
Good to see that you get out of that barn occasionally Jeremy! This painting speaks to me too, as do the others you've completed on a similar theme. As you say, it's all about the light rather than the fairly unremarkable countryside you've depicted here.
Oh wow gorgeous! I love how the grass seems to melt into and out of focus. Very well done indeed.
http://mysocalledfeudallife.blogspot.com/
You said this probably means more to you than the viewer but you are so wrong. I have walked in a nature preserve near my home and saw that very light many times in the winter evening. The minute I saw this painting I was frozen back in time to the very moment. It is a wonderful painting and you captured the moment perfectly for someone other than yourself. Thank you!
Hi Peter, glad you picked up on the subtly of the painting which sometimes gets lost against more intense work. And don't worry, I'm finished with the barn for the time being! Although at times I can be something of a hermit, I am coming to realise that there is so much to see and paint out there - oh, how the horizons beckon!
Raisa, thank you very much! Yours and other comments inspire me to try harder.
Miriam, I really glad that you feel that way! This of course was one of the reasons that I wanted to paint 'Evening Light' in the first place, hoping that someone other than myself would experience the same as what I saw and felt.
Post a Comment