Showing posts with label night scene. Show all posts
Showing posts with label night scene. Show all posts

Saturday, May 18, 2013

The Overlook, 7x5" - Sold

The Overlook, pastel on board by Adriana Meiss

    I have been painting a lot but almost everything needs still more work to even consider taking pictures of it.  That's why I'm posting this little study which I did for last month's OAG sale. I'm happy that a friend of mine owns it now.
    I'm working on a larger version of it, but as my tendency is to paint night scenes too dark, now I'm at the stage where I have to carefully push the lighter values so that  I don't end up with a dark rectangle on a wall.

Monday, February 18, 2013

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...

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Of Crickets and Frogs, 11x14" - Sold

Of Crickets and Frogs, 11x14" pastel on board by Adriana Meiss
      Christmas came earlier for me: I'm thrilled to have this painting accepted in the 2012 International Association of Pastel Societies Web Show. See the show here.

     On another note, I don't like to make "resolutions" for the new year. The word has such a strong meaning --think of resolutions set in stone, that I know beforehand that I will disappoint myself sooner or later for not accomplishing them. I prefer to use the word "goals" because what ever those goals are going to be, it's easier to modify them into long and short-term goals. Here are some of my new goals:
  • to participate in 2 more en plein air events
  • to submit entries in more pastel competitions
  • to teach a pastel workshop
Best wishes to you for the new year!

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Peaceful Night, 10x8" - Sold

Peaceful Night, 8x10" pastel by Adriana Meiss
This painting happened by chance. I had painted a sunset with very warm pinks and yellows, some trees in the foreground and a field of daisies in the middle ground. I wasn't that sure of the results and after looking at it for several days I just did not like it anymore so I took it to the sink and washed it off.

A ghost was left on the board and fearing that some of the tooth might have been lost, I applied micaceous iron oxide to the board. This liquid acrylic produced by Golden, dries as an iridescent gunmetal color due in part to the mica particles. It did not completely cover the previous ghost, but that was to my advantage because the idea of a night scene immediately came to mind. This piece became a conversational piece at this weekend show when people commented on the sparkle of the night sky.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Starry Night in the Adirondacks, 7x5"

Starry Night in the Adirondacks by, Adriana Meiss

This recently finished painting was done on an impulse from a photo reference taken during daytime.

I have never painted outdoors at night, but I do go out then very often just to see the colors and to take mental notes. It only takes a few minutes for the eye to get used to the darkness. Then I ask myself  how many colors can be easily identified.  It always helps me to imagine myself painting and looking for a particular color in my pastel box. The house that was red during daylight, is it now blue or purple? What color does white take in darkness? Whatever the answer is, in my experience some of the colors need to be exaggerated just a little bit, and you do not necessarily have to rely on black. The darkest areas in the painting above were done with dark blues and dark olive greens.

The trick about night scenes is to make them believable enough. Just look at Rene Magritte's painting The Empire of Lights: cover the bottom part and you have a daytime sky, cover the area of the sky and you see a night scene, yet the whole scene seems to be so real...

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Early Stars, 20x16" -- sold

I'm back after a 2-week vacation visiting my family in Costa Rica. I took over a 1000 pics and have so many plans and ideas I would like to put into practice in the near future.

The show went well. Two paintings were sold before the reception day and one more after I came back. I'm still hoping to sell at least one more before the show is over.

I have to thank my friend Marybeth for insisting that I painted some night scenes for the show. As it was, I only had time to paint this one, but it received very good comments. A lady described to me what she felt about it, which was exactly what I wanted to convey with it--what a nice feeling!

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Quiet Night, 9"x7" SOLD


This morning I got this painting out of the drawer with the purpose of photographing it for my records, but while I was at it, I noticed a few things that were bothering me. So I got to work and it's now officially finished. I have found that it's much easier to see what needs to be done with a painting if I take photos of it.

This is the view looking east from my backyard. The main street that bisects the city is on the other side of the tall houses. I worked from a photo I took a year ago, and remember being surprised at the time for having captured the color of the sky with my camera. I emphasized the color in the painting to convey a surreal mood.

I was going to title it Winter Moon, but considering that my neighborhood is truly quiet only when it rains or when it's a cold winter night, I thought the present title was more appropriate.

Saturday, November 29, 2008

City Glow



Since some of you have commented or contacted me expressing interest in nighttime paintings, I decided to post this one (14" x18"), painted a year ago, and the second of this kind. At the time, I felt challenged by the idea of turning a daytime scene into a night one.



After looking at the reference photos I had, this one offered a lot of possibilities. By the time I was ready to sketch, I knew I wanted this painting to be about city lights behind the hill. I looked at Maxfield Parrish's landscapes for ideas about how to handle the sky, but ended up relying on my memory.
As I was finishing the painting, the large expanse of empty foreground became problematic -- which happens often when I don't plan a painting thoroughly. I thought about all the possible things I could add, but settled for these bales. Now that I look at it, I see so many things that need fixing, but I'm not touching it again. Some paintings are like stepping stones, leading us somewhere. The results aren't always what we expect but in trying we learn something. This piece helped me get rid of the apprehension involved in painting a night scene. Next year, when the weather is nice, I'm hoping to paint at least one entirely outdoors.
Share with me your thoughts on this subject or about something different you've tried, that made a difference to you.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

From the Porch, 8"x6" (Sold)


Ever since I saw Marc Hanson' nocturnes a year ago, I decided I had to try painting night scenes. This is the third of them so far. The sketching and note taking about colors and highlights was done from my porch, the rest was done in the studio.
I was so tempted to emphasize the catalpa seed pods on the top right but given the size of this painting I decided against it. I'll leave them to your imagination.

While taking notes I was wondering, why is it that night paintings represent a small percentage of what we see in galleries or online, when this time of day seems, at least to me, so full of magic, romance, and mystery? Is it that artists think there is not much color around at night, or is it a matter of not knowing how to go about it?

Go outside tonight and observe. You'll see colors even if there is no moon. They are there, just different. Look at something that is white in daylight and ask yourself what would you call that color now. Certainly painting becomes a challenge because we see larger masses, and composition might require more careful thought, but leaving this aspect aside, I'm inclined to think it's really a matter of not knowing how to proceed. My suggestion is to sketch and observe! Some artist use head lamps to paint outdoors. I haven't tried that yet, but in the mean time, I'll rely on observation.