Johnstown Christmas Eve

Well, somwhat appropriate to have finished this 24" x 36" painting during the Christmas holidays. The photo was taken en route to Sydney Cape Breton on Christmas Eve 2010.
I started this in September, and finally had time to complete it. There is a bit of glare from the overhead lights in the centre top of the photo.
This snapshot is all I can show so far. I learned lots in the painting of this one.

I love the way you have used the darks and the greys and the color harmony is just fantastic. I love the way you have painted the telephone poles, especially at the bottom.

Thanks for sharing. Did you learn anything valuable during your painting, i.e. colors, chroma, value, temperature... how you handled it e.t.c.

Thanks

M. Ghalib.

It's really gorgeous Watermixable Guy. Thanks for showing us.
Dayle

Thanks for your comments M. Ghalib and Dayle!

This painting was a good one for me to progress in several ways. It's not easy to see in the snapshot I posted, but I worked with softening some edges of the church, particularly at the steeple and the left vertical edge of the front of the church. I also greyed the chimney so it receded a bit into the sky.

The telephone poles were in the photo, and I left them out of a small study that I painted during the summer. But after some consideration, I liked the subtle 'cross' shape at the top of the poles, so decided to leave them in this larger painting. One of those things that are there in the painting if you look for them, and not if you don't... The road stains and patches are very rough in this painting, but I mixed the colors as colse as I could to the reference colours, and applied the paint in a 'scratchy' way. I also left out the centre yellow line and the white road shoulder markings, as I thought they were too 'linear', and distracting.

I used Indian Red, Viridian, Yellow Ochre, and Raw Umber, with Purple also, as colours of the bushes. I kept the amount of painting detail limited to what I wanted to direct the eye to, such as the monuments. I kept greying them more and more until I thought they were appropriately 'lit', so as not to distract.

The painting took 13 hours, including the roughing in stage.

I looked at your painting again... and it is a real beauty.

The yellowing of the grass/foliage at the corner, the subtle change of color/value in the bushes and your treatment of aerial perspective is very good. All in all it is a tight painting. Nice!

M. Ghalib

Wow fantastic painting. I thought that it was the reference photo that you were posting. Very realistic!

I'm glad you finally got it finished. Leaving the poles in was a very good decision. I think the painting would look barren without them. I love the texture on the road and glad you left out the lines. It just gives it more a feeling of an old, well-traveled country road leading up to the church on the hill.

Very nice job.

Judy