Barn at Night, 9x12"

Barn at Night, 8x10" pastel on board by Adriana Meiss

Last December, I had some paintings on exhibit at a local library and instead of  having a reception I thought that a pastel demonstration on how I approach painting night scenes would be more interesting.

The night before, doubts crept in and in panic mode I felt the need to do a small version of what I planned to paint:

Barns, Study, 5x7" pastel on board

 Next day, feeling more confident, and taking into account that I had just an hour and a half to do the demo, I decided to simplify the scene. This is a far as it got:
 

Barn, Demo

  Back home, I made further changes in color and composition to the demo painting. I had forgotten to leave enough space between the silo and the top edge so in order to make it work I had to reduce the size of the main objects. I'm happy with the result and can even imagine a similar scene with a light in the distant barn...

Ethereal, 9x6"

Ethereal, 9x 6" pastel on paper by Adriana Meiss

Very often when I need something to paint, I go through my photo reference files and if something clicks I get to work on it right away. That was the case with this one. I had a different color idea in mind when I started, but somehow along the way, the color of paper (brown Colourfix) made me choose these colors.  I like the quality of the light;  it makes me think it's going to vanish in an instant. It will be interesting to try the same scene with a different color paper, red for example, which I have...

Remembrance, 8 x 6 1/2"

Remembrance, pastel on watercolor paper by Adriana Meiss

Yesterday I felt compelled to paint this scene. It's all from memory. I had finished setting up eight of my paintings at The Oaks at Menorah Park and on the way down the driveway the pale sun caught my attention. Because I had left the camera at home, I had to do a quick mental-note-taking of the colors. Then that night, a stray cat from the neighborhood (I called him Proboscis Cat because of a patch of dark color on his face that gave him the impression of having a big nose) suffered an awful death. I didn't like him that much but for some reason his passing away saddened me so much. I cannot say that painting it had a cathartic effect on me, but at least I have something to remind me of that small creature.