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.

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.

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.

Orion, 10" x 13" - SOLD

Orion is my favorite constellation of the winter sky. As a kid I didn't know the meaning of the name, nor what it represented. All that mattered to me then, was that it was the easiest to recognize: three stars close together in a row, and bingo!

For this painting I use a photo of a field on Rt 80, South of Syracuse, taken a year ago during daylight. I changed the field's orientation from east to south, and the rest was observation.
I had to wait till we had a clear night to brave the cold several times in order to track the constellation's movements. This is Orion's position at 6:00PM.

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.