Color, Color, Color!

Just started and no title as yet, 30x24 oil on linen

     This is the new painting I mentioned having started while taking a break from "6th and Constitution".  I had the same desire to paint this as I did to paint "Primal" which I posted earlier.  When I move out of my comfort zone it is relaxing and reassuring to come back to what I know.  The image here is one I have painted lots of times but in this painting  I am taking liberties with the lay of the land.  You know, "artists license".  The view is looking up river from the Chain Bridge.  Below I will show you a couple of my paintings that acurately represent the view.  I live about half way up the Virginia palisades on the left on the opposite side of the road that parallels the wooded curve.
     I am painting on linen that I have coated with an additional coat of gesso letting the brush marks show.  I then tinted the canvas with yellow ochre.  Next, I just got to work from memory and used my own paintings as reference points.  I just had the desire for rich, intense color and unabashed Romanticism.  I have begun suggesting a ruin or castle on the right and will have to look around town for something to model it after or just make it up.  This is just great fun.  Last year a painting like this would be considered small for me but this year a 30x24 is about as large as I plan to go.  Like I mentioned in an earlier post, it's an economic consideration.  I already feel like starting another one with slightly different colors.  Maybe the gray winter is getting to me?

The Potomac in Winter, 20x16 oil on linen

Up River From the Chain Bridge, 40x30 oil on linen