This little sunset was a joy to paint. So 13 turned out to be a lucky number today.
Day 13. “Sunset from the Arc de Triomphe” by Beverly Shipko, Oil painting on cradled panel, 5 x 7 inches.
This view brought back happy memories from a few years ago. When Bonnie graduated Marist college, I asked her what she wanted for a present. Her answer was a family vacation, and she chose Paris.
When we arrived in Paris, we had a few hours of daylight left and walked over to the Champs-Élysées. We ate dinner in a cute outdoor cafe and went to the Arc de Triomphe, where this stunning sunset awaited us. In the distance, you can see a large cluster of government buildings with the iconic rectangle (which I will look up in my tour guide since I can’t find it on the internet). I took a series of photos that night.
I started this landscape by using a light wash of yellow ochre for the underpainting, followed by a bare bones sketch of the essential compositional elements (the opposite of what I did yesterday with the orchids). Then I went for the oils and laid in the largest areas of colors.
I applied a few layers of paint to the clouds and ended up wiping them off. There was too much paint on my brush for the light, airy feeling that I envisioned for this image. In fact, when I wiped off the paint, I got some wonderful streaks of sunlight coming through from the underpainting, which I left in. Sometimes good things happen accidentally and you have to take advantage of these situations – which I did.
It became apparent early on that this painting was going to work. I just had to relax, turn on some music (Aaron Copland fit today’s theme), enjoy myself, and put in the effort. All of which I did. Quite a different experience from Day 12.
I won’t take you through a litany of changes I would make if I had another day – because I realize I probably wouldn’t make them. Instead, I would simply paint another version. And that is progress, with a capital “P”.
Ideally, I would like to use a similar yellow/orange palette tomorrow since I got used to the nuances of working with these colors and am on a roll. I have an idea for a Day 14, but maybe I don’t want to spoil the surprise…
You’ll just have to come back for the next installment.
