Gamla Stan

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My wife and I were in Germany to visit our daughter’s family. We planned to do some touring in Europe. As part of the trip, we went to Stockholm, Sweden, where our son-in-law ran in the Stockholm marathon. We spent five fantastic days there. We didn’t know anything about the place , but after our Swedish experience, we fell madly in love with Stockholm.

Gamla Stan is the old town part of Stockholm. You move down narrow walkways between five and six story tall buildings, each painted in beautiful colors. They all have very interesting shops and restaurants. At the end of this particular street is a very pretty church. I was so impressed when I saw it. It was framed by the buildings on both sides. It was a fantastic view. I had to paint it. Notice the open window in the upper left part of the painting. People would use their windows as mirrors to see what was going on down the street.

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Daphna

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This is a portrait of Daphna. I painted it in a series of five sittings in the living room of her home. She is a down-to-earth, no nonsense type of woman. I wanted  to portray her strength and personal determination. The right side of her face is lit by the lamp on the glass table she is leaning on, giving a warm, yellowish glow. The left side is lit by natural light coming from a window. The natural light has a blue tint from the sky.

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Cherries

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I did this painting without a paint brush. I mixed alizarin crimson with french ultramarine blue and put a fairly thick coat of it on a white canvas. I wiped away parts of it which you can see with the light background. I left the shapes of the cherries and the stems. I applied the light red and the white highlights with my thumb.

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Tips

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I asked a musician friend of mine if I could watch him play his bass in a club. I had wanted to do a painting of a jazz combo or other group. He said I could.  I took my camera and took several shots.

This painting is supposed to show an afternoon feeling with light coming in through the slits in the blinds. The piano player has sunlight coming in on his shoulder. Both men have a lighter side on their faces. The bass player’s bald head reflects in the wall behind him. Both heads have a highlight from a light over them. There is a tip glass that was put on the piano. I have used atmospheric perspective. The glass is larger than the people in the background, giving the feeling of depth. You can see light reflecting off the side of it from the blinds, and you can see the bass player’s arm through it. In the bottom is money that has been left for tips.

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A Fun Portrait

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I was commissioned to do a portrait of two little girls. From past experience I knew that they wouldn’t sit still while I painted them. I decided I would take several photographs of them and try to work from those images. The younger child sat on the floor and grinned at me the whole time. The older girl cried and tried to run away. I didn’t quite know what to do. Finally it was decided to get out some crayons and a coloring book. She still refused to look at me, but became quite enthralled with coloring. I got down on the floor  with the camera and started shooting.

The painting turned out quite well. Actually, the older child seems quite charming as she concentrates on her crayon, while the baby smiles away, very happily. I’ve painted this very loosely – or should I say I did it in an impressionist manner. I portrayed an atmosphere more than a photographic image. I hope their mother will always remember what it felt like when her babies were young.

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Evening in Venice

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Venice is one of the most romantic cities in the world. A family member and her husband recently celebrated a significant wedding anniversary there and were so excited about the experience they had. She asked  me to try to portray the feelings she felt. She remembers riding the gondola in the early evening and paddling in to some beautiful buildings with lighted restaurants below them. The water was beautiful and the atmosphere was great.

You will notice the reflections of the lights in the water. The restaurant has warm colors, while the buildings above have a cooler hue. I have one gondolier in the picture to add interest.

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Lunch Break

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One of the things I have noticed as an artist is that if you look carefully at the colors you are actually seeing, they are different than what your mind tells you they are. This painting is a case in point. This is a downtown scene at around lunchtime when the sun is nearly overhead. Instead of the street being black and the sidewalk gray, they are almost white, as is the sky. You will notice several reflections in the window of people and cars. Above the window is shiny stonework that reflects the buildings that are across the street. I have used linear perspective because the street goes narrower and the buildings get smaller as they go back. Atmospheric perspective is also used – the people and cars get smaller the further back they go, and they also show less detail. There are some facial characteristics on the closer people, but the ones further back have none. All of these things show depth.

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Winter on Market Street

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If you really look at sunlight, it has a yellowish tint. Likewise, shadow is blue. You can see that in this painting. The streetlights in the shadow are blue, basically because they are in the shadow and they reflect the color of  the sky above. As you go farther in the painting, the lights turn yellow because they are in the sunlight. There is linear perspective because the sidewalk gets narrower the further into the painting it goes. There is atmospheric perspective because the cars are more detailed up closer than the ones in the distance. Also they are larger up close than the ones in the background. These things give the painting depth. You feel like you could walk down the sidewalk.

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