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).

Moonlit Nocturne, Core Creek Park, 11x14 oil painting

                                       
Moon Over the Lake 11x14 oil

This was painted from one of the sketches I did on Sept 20 at Core Creek Park during the Harvest Moon.

  When attempting to paint at night a lot of my time  on location is spent just looking at and memorizing what is in front of me. After I lay out my paint and have brushes and everything ready I turn the light out on my easel and let my eyes adjust to the dark.  When my eyes have adjusted I start comparing the values of each object in the scene to see what is darker, lighter or the same value. I'm actually painting the scene in my mind before I pick up a brush, so when I start to paint I have the confidence to paint what I already know.

Night Painting the Harvest Moon, Core Creek Park

I went out to the park right before sunset to wait for the harvest moon to rise. I used two  8x10  reused (gessoed over) panels.

In the first sketch I still had a little bit of light left in the landscape where you could just make out colors. My concern though was capturing the values of the scene the best I could.

                                                                                          

                                                                                             

For the second sketch I went around to a different part of the park that would give me a view of  some water and the moons reflection.

As you can see in the picture I had my Mighty Bright light clamped on to my easel giving me enough light to see with.

Now I have some reference material to use for studio paintings that I have confidence in. I had taken photos too but they were useless, they just don't capture what the eyes really see.

  On Charge 10x10 oil

The last things I do before going to bed at night is get the coffee ready for the morning and put my phone on charge on the end table in the living room. I couldn't help noticing the subtle light thrown off by the phone and how it illuminates objects close by.
It reminds me of how a landscape is transformed by the moon at night.
The hardest part was deciding what to leave out because I saw a lot more than what is here.
I like the subtle light on the wall and how part of the lamp is illuminated.

Moonlit Nocturne

This was painted from sketches done from one of our trips upstate. What interested me was the cloud formations passing in front of the moon. The original scene was a wet gravel road leading into the park. The damp road had a barely visible reflection of the moon on it. I switched a small stream (which I have an addiction to)  for the road so the reflection would read better.

We have no cell phone service up there but there is a pay phone at the entrance to the park so we arrange with our wives to call at a certain time at night so we can talk about each others day and make sure everything is ok at home.  While I was waiting for my turn at the phone it gave me time to look around and sketch this scene.

My brother and I have been going up there for the last twenty four years and never tire of this place. And as an artist there is always something new to catch my interest because nothing is ever the same. A brief rain shower before we came down to the phone provided a scene that stimulated my senses.

Moonlight

I like trying to capture the mood on moonlit nights. This image was from a  flyfishing vacation my brother and I take every year in Northcentral Pa. When you don't have to go to work the next day you can afford to stay up all night making sketches of the landscape as the moon works its way across the sky.
Once your eyes adjust you can see remarkably well by moonlight, enough to walk all around the park taking pictures and sketching.

Moonlight  8x10 oil on Gallery wrapped canvas.