Close to home

I’ve been getting out to sketch and paint in my new neighbourhood, and in my old one too. The other day I spotted this yellow dumpster in Hudson. What would have been a very mundane scene on an overcast day was made a lot more interesting with the sunlight on the front of the dumpster. Someone asked me what I used for the shadow on yellow. I had some Payne’s Grey on my palette and I mixed that into some leftover yellow wash I had in the mixing well. That gave me the greenish dark that seemed to work for the shadow colour.

This morning I went back to the old neighbourhood and parked in my usual spot to look at the boats on the breakwater. I had my easel with me, but with dark clouds on the horizon I decided to paint from my car. It was no easy feat to balance a 12″ x 16″ block of paper on my lap. It’s probably the biggest size I’ve ever worked on in the car. I almost tipped over my palette a few times, I definitely splashed some Naples yellow on the steering wheel when I was painting the sky, and I had a near disaster when a wasp flew into the car. But happily I managed to finish it.