Night Shades

"Vermilion Sky, Georgetown Waterfront", 24x30 oil on linen

    I guess you could say I have become a creature of the night. The more I paint them the more I love nocturnes!  I gravitate towards the moments of last light when the landscape has darkened, lights have come on and there is some drama and deep color to the sky.  Cities sparkle at these moments.  This is the view of Georgetown from the Teddy Roosevelt Bridge spanning the Potomac between Virginia and DC.  When I began the painting I used a sky photographed by an artist friend in Scotland (with his blessing of course) as I didn't have another reference for the sky I had experienced.  Happily the sunset Thanksgiving evening was exactly like this so between Ken's photo and what I could see again for myself and photograph I finished the painting today. I darkened the clouds to be more like the Thanksgiving sunset and then made the blue of the sky darker and more intense.  I think I will protect this one from further tweaking and put it away for a week or so.  I am itching to work with these colors again but I am not sure what scene I will choose.

     The opening at American Paintings Fine Art in DC on Saturday night was a tremendous success.  It was a miserable, cold, night with heavy rain pouring down nonstop so I was concerned that many would not venture out but when I arrived the gallery was packed!  The French restaurant next door, Et Voila, catered the affair so everyone was treated to beautiful paintings, fine food and good wine. The painting I wanted to upload in my last post but was unable to is shown below.  This was one of the four I had on exhibit and I am happy to say it sold that night!

"Evening on the West River", 8x10 oil on panel

Small Treasures

"Heading to DC" 6x12 inches, oil on linen panel

     Tonight is the OPENING RECEPTION FOR SMALL TREASURES 2014, at American Paintings Fine Art at 5118 MacArthur Blvd. NW, Washington DC.  The reception is from 5:00-6:00 so if you are planning on being in town this evening you might want to stop by for some wine and hors d'oevres and view over 100 tiny paintings just waiting to become Christmas gifts or a treat for yourself.  Small paintings (none larger than 9x12) and small prices!
      I will have four paintings in this show and along with the ones pictured above and below there will also be a cityscape, "September Evening, Rosslyn" shown a few posts back as well as "Evening on the West River" from a much earlier post. I will try to get that up here too but I often have trouble uploading more than two paintings to a post.

      I have had a sad interruption to my painting and posting but I will slowly but surely be getting back on track. Tomorrow I will upload some of the paintings on view in NYC at the Salmagundi Club's Thumb Box show.  In the meantime you can view all the work in that HUGE show by going to www.salmagundi.org and clicking on the image for that show. It is being billed as the biggest little show in the Club's history. It has a long history!

"Silver and White" 8x8 inches, oil on linen panel