I am lucky to be able to look at this wonderful view almost all year long, it is from Mount Weather looking towards Winchester, VA and it is beautiful and complicated. It changes every few moments and it is imperative that I have a concept or a theme when I start or I will completely lose the painting in meaningless detail and random thoughts. I have painted this scene many times and will continue to do so.
“Dusk in the Valley” 9×12 oil on canvas panel
In this view I looked past the foreground trees and since I was painting real time with short time window, I just focused on the dark mountain ridge and the wonderful clouds passing in front of the sky. This was a 30 minute quick sketch.
“Lights of Winchester” 12×16 oil on panel. I painted this on the porch last summer while painting with two of my friends and finished it yesterday after finding it in a storage box. It was 80% finished I just needed to get the values organized and a few colors more violet. This time of day things start going violet and dark, the contrast a big and the colors are muted although powerful.
“Blue Afternoon” 12×16 oil on panel. This was a demonstration for my oil painting class and I think it works to tell the story of the beautiful light in the valley. I put very little detail on the foreground trees then are the entry point to the painting the valley is the center of interest. I had make sure that I kept this my concept, the cool violet light of the valley floor up through the mountains. Focus, Steve
Thank you for your explanations, they are very useful.
Wonderful job of doing one scene in 3 completely different ways!