As I was in for...

...a painting marathon, I thought I would take a series of photos to show the progress. After mixing my colors and preparing a new batch of medium, a modest beginning in the upper left at two hours:


Here, the grey gradient of background clouds is filled in at four hours:


At six hours, minus the break for Sue Cebulka's fabulous left over lasagna and ensuing disco nap, the transition from dark to white of the sun burst is filled in:


Careful not to drag darks into the white, and realizing straight on shots are boring, the light colors of the sunburst are filled in by hour eight:


The biggest correction occurred when I completely changed the color of the sky to a pale blueish-grey gradient by hour ten:


Now while the paint from the background clouds was still wet, I began filling in the foreground clouds by hour twelve:


Finally, by hour fourteen and with minutes to spare before needing to be at a wedding, the rest of the upper foreground clouds fell into place and I was at a point where I could stop:


Hoping that the paint would stay wet, I was back at it the next day for another crazy long painting session. The lower foreground clouds were to be filled in, and a soft wavy horizon line needed to be created. I was at the gallery for 24 hours this time, but with talking to people on a busy Sunday, a longish power nap after closing the doors at ten, and shooting all the finished pieces for my digital archive (thanks Andy!), the painting time was about half of that. Believe it or not, I spent four hours solely painting in the horizon to a soft, evenly wavy line.


Although in the digital world you are not able to see the difference, as they say the proof is in the pudding, namely the quality of edges with clean and soft colors. This sky is done right! (Even by my standards...) But now the painting will have to wait for the water to be finished as I take a ten day vacation to visit long neglected friends and family. Will be back blogging soon!

- jb boyd