I make paintings of the wilderness and in cities and little towns before dawn that bring to life that awe-filled mystery of being alive on this planet.
I went and visited with an old friend at his house in Vermont a few years ago, and got up about 3am one night and drove around. Vermont is an especially beautiful place, and I love the little villages spread throughout the countryside. This painting is of a neighborhood in Vergennes, about 4:30 in the morning.
I find that I approach the technique for each painting differently. This had lots of different areas so I didn’t apply an overall primatura, or color undercoat, as I often do. I instead drew with pencil and marker to indicated what went where first. Next I applied a thin glaze of paint in the foreground and sky, and darkened the trees. It just started to go from day to night. This is more of an underpainting, now.More thin paint; a darker sky and road, the trees starting to move towards their final color. A little more picking out of details. It’s important to not get discouraged at the mess the painting looks like for these middle stages! Music helps…The sky was too light so i went in and brought it way darker. More areas have been painted for the first time; the overall tonality is close, but everything is still pretty crude. I lost the outline of the trees when I repainted the sky so I went in and drew them in with marker so I could find then again.
More work on pretty much area, although it still feels pretty rough. There are painters who I admire who pretty much finish one area as they move around, but I can’t do that. I need to tweak and evaluate the effect everywhere else as I feel my way around.
A pretty big readjustment. The sky was too purple, so i grayed it down, and also tweaked the house colors and the foreground. Around here I started another painting and left this up to ponder on for a while…Here’s the final painting. I went in to each little area and focused on clarifying it, then moved on to another. Now, finally, it feels more like it did when I saw it that night.
I always ENJOY when an artist I admire demonstrates the steps and explains their reasoning. Thank you for this Jonathan! I appreciate your love of evening perspectives!!!—–> Sent from my orbiting Space Station
Jonathan Keeton Artist Blog 
I always ENJOY when an artist I admire demonstrates the steps and explains their reasoning. Thank you for this Jonathan! I appreciate your love of evening perspectives!!!—–> Sent from my orbiting Space Station
LikeLike
thanks my esteemed friend!
LikeLike
Glad to see your blog again Jon and watch the progress of your work. Beautiful work. And I learn something each time!
LikeLike