Nocturnes are so enchanting. The very essence of capturing the palest light on a dark night whispers of mystery. Most of my nocturne paints have been in town, where light is illuminated from buildings and street lights, and spread all about the landscape in a limited scope. Painting the light of the moon is quite different. Everything about it is different. The light is cool, therefore the shadows are warm. In this case, I started with a black surface. I never do this with a street scene, because I want some color variation in the darks. In this painting, I created that difference with paint, warming the dark hues as they neared the ground. The sky was the lightest plane in my landscape, and though reflected in the water, it was darker. Some of those dark shadows lost their edges, especially in the trees which seemed engulfed with some of that moonlight. I did have to use a headlamp to paint this, which I have never used before - mainly because I do not like the blue light they emit. I simply had no other choice here. When I think if the moon, and moonlight, I always think "lemon yellow". This was not true when it stood before me, it was silvery (although I did tint my white with the palest bit of lemon yellow - because nothing in the landscape is really white). This painting makes 1291 in 1291 days.
No comments:
Post a Comment