Saturday, February 1, 2014

Autumn nocturne

                   8x10 oil

This is one of the few painting I did this year with fall colors. I just painted it recently even though fall is long gone.This tree sits on the other side of our fence, I would see this tree lit under the street light and what caught my attention was how well you could see the colors in the tree at night.

This is the third try at getting this painting to look and feel the way I wanted it to.
 I wanted to keep the values close together but with just enough light to barely make out the other objects in the scene.


One night I did this quick 5x7 sketch looking out my window and left it out on the bookshelf to look at to help me plan the painting. It just took a few months to get the courage to do it (fear of failure).




6 comments:

Jane said...

That dim light is stunning Pat, really well done, must have been quite a challenge to get it right .

Kev's Art said...

I really like this. I know what you mean concerning values in a subject like this, it can be tricky to pull it off convincingly. Happily you've done it and I love the light flooding from the lamp. The picture has a real atmosphere, quite brooding and mysterious... that's my take anyway. Great job.

Pat O'Driscoll said...

Thanks Jane and Kev.

mary maxam said...

Both the light and very selective shapes are just perfect here. The time and place read beautifully in both.

juliefordoliver.blogspot.com said...

The atmosphere is the winner here. You created a wonderful sense of place and time. It evoked a deep feeling of calm in me.
Thank you for the nice comment. I appreciate it.

Jani Lori said...

Very nice!