Picking Up Where I Left Off

"Georgetown"40x30 oil on linen

     I finished this painting two days ago and it was a joy to be working large again! I plan on continuing with works 24x30 and larger for quite a while. Small works are fun and a great way to work out new ideas but I painted LOTS of them this fall and winter and it is time for a change.

     I am sure you recognize this view as the same from two posts back, hence the post title. Standing on the north end of the terrace of the Kennedy Center and looking west provides this wonderful view of Georgetown. I have had fun painting it as a rainy nocturne, a deep blue nocturne and now at the moment between dusk and the descent of night. I love this particular moment that lasts just for that long. The color fades really fast so writing it down and committing it to memory is best because I am never able to capture exactly what I want with my camera. I did a small color study painted to scale in my sketchbook and that is what I worked from.
     A daytime photo gave me all the information I needed about the placement of the buildings and the rest was from my mental picture. I prefer the freedom of working that way.

     Looking around my studio it is clear I am drawn to blue. I go through tubes of it in all different hues. When painting nocturnes I like to have at least four different blues on my palette and the colors that are mixed from those varied blues help capture all the nuances of color in the night

    ON THE EASEL: A painting titled "Le Diplomate" 24x36. I just started it today and the subject is the restaurant of that name on the corner of 14th Street and Q Street. It is a nocturne after a rain. Once again, I am working from a sketch and a color study both to scale in my sketchbook. I hope I will be posting the finished painting soon.