Tag sunset

Skies

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Because we have temporarily moved (over the past month) to Western Pennsylvania (until Thanksgiving), I’ve become behind on the posts of paintings that I’d planned. I’m going to try to catch up a bit. !

These are all small (6 x 8 ins) sky paintings on canvas. I painted them earlier in the year, all from photographs I’d taken. I was experimenting with ‘feeling’ the color and trying to achieve that sky ‘glow’. These are more abstract than subjects I usually paint, and the freedom with shapes and colors was invigorating.

Ducks

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What’s Up, Duck? 8 x 10, oil on canvas panel

When we lived in Bath, England for 8 months in 2006-7, we used to walk past a music supply shop called ‘Duck, Son & Pinker’. Since ‘Duckie’ is sometimes used in England as a term of endearment, my husband thought this was an appropriate title for me, our 4 year old son and baby daughter!

From that time, the name stuck in our (half-British) family too. This male duck (from a photo I took in Holland, MI last year) seems to be talking to his mate with some concern, echoing both a marital communication and the famous line from Bugs Bunny.

Street Reflections

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Main Street, Holland, MI, at sunset.
8 x 10, oil

I took the photo behind this painting because I liked the striking light patterns on the side-walk in front of the shops. It’s easy to think it is light coming from within the shops, but in fact it is the late afternoon sunshine reflecting off the shop windows. It gives me a pleasantly warm feeling.

Plein Air at Lake Erie

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We’re on a camping trip to the east coast. I brought my pochade box and spent a delightful hour sitting on the southern shore of Lake Erie at sunset, painting this little study. I had decided to challenge myself by bringing only knives and blades (no brushes), so the painting is a little rougher as a result, but the sensation of sweeping paint across the surface was lovely. We stayed to watch the sun finally sink below the horizon-glorious!