During the summer I often wake up early to take a walk over to Island Park to visit the library, or buy fresh tomatoes, sweet corn, and blueberries at the farmers market. I enjoy walking early in the morning, especially on a warm and sunny day. The birds are active and shops are beginning to open. The sunlight is at a dramatic angle, and it's warm but not uncomfortably hot. I often bring my camera with me to capture some of these scenes so that I can use them as reference material for paintings.
This vantage point is of Ellicott Creek as seen from the only bridge to the island. The creek flows around the island and then passes underneath Main street before going over Glen Falls.
What attracted me to painting this scene was the surreal mood that the woods can take on right after sunset. I wanted to capture the luminosity of the sky and water so I used acrylics in a transparent manner similar to watercolor. I know from my experience with watercolor that if I overwork the painting it can lose the brilliance that can be achieved with transparent washes, so I focused on the essence of the image and aimed to get the colors and the values correct without making too many corrections. The original painting is available.
The original painting is for sale. This painting is the result of taking a walk with my brother when the sun was about to set. He rolled his eyes at me when I pulled my camera out and stopped to take pictures. I couldn’t help myself, the light was amazing!
The original painting is available. This is another painting of Amherst State Park from around the same time as the painting I posted yesterday. I managed to get a watercolor look in some areas. I like how the reflections in the stream turned out, in some areas the brown silt shows through while other areas reflect some of the blue from the sky.
