Thursday, August 5, 2021

Here Comes the Sun?

I love celebrating the sunsets. I was trying my hand at plein air painting at the Downtown Paint Around and the challenge is always capturing the atmosphere in a painting. The skies during the event were a bit gray and yellow. I was missing the blue skies and sharp shadow contrasts to paint. But on the way home from the evenings open house event at River City Gallery I made sure I stopped at the Onalaska Overlook to get some unusual atmospheric photos. Since smoke from fires across the continent are obscuring our skies, it also has the benefit for some fabulous sunsets.

Here's a painting of the wonderful golden contrast with grays due to air qualities beyond our control.

The Star of the Evening 8x10

But as the sun set even farther into the haze a Monet style ball of bright red appeared. Unfortunately my camera wasn't sufficient to capture the moment.

Bystanders using their phone cameras had been more lucky. They shared their good fortune by sending me photos that inspired this next painting. Thank you again Debera Uy for your kindness to this creator.

In A Haze 8x10 photo credit Debera Uy

In a different place at another time a rare view of the sun setting at the head of the Mississippi. It's unusual for this position of the sun to the river, only because here the Mississippi meanders west to east. This moment was captured thanks to Melissa Janda, one of her spots for some quiet solitude. After seeing her photo I knew I wanted to paint this and more importantly go there sometime myself.