Almost There, oil on canvas, 20×40

Almost There, oil on canvas, 20×40

This painting, Almost There, makes me feel free and ready to drive. Travel is inspiring or can be when you’re not stuck on the freeway at rush hour. This was one of those super clear fall days where the angle of the shadows give away the fact that winter is on nigh. I like how there’s subtle colors in the fields in contrast to the yellow leaves of autumn. These yellows are complementary colors to the blue/purple/red tones of the road. Pay special attention to the white lines at the road’s edge. Here the shadow areas of the “white” line is pure cobalt blue and white to place it exactly there.

Interesting shadow play always catches my eye. One of my consistent themes has been depicting shadows perpendicular to your line of sight. I like how the different planes of the road can be painted by mixing in subtle tones to a base color and using the resultant mixtures to show how the road moves up and down or sways with the natural topography. This road was painted gray with subtle reds added to pick up the glow and warmth of the road and blue to show the reflection of the sky. This is where it gets fun (or frustrating) to test your color mixing skills to show both the road and its shadows through the light and shadow areas. One of special interest was getting the color right for the double yellow center lines; it was interesting how much blue was in the yellow lines in shadow to make it read.