Sunrise Commute

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Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on October 29, 2013 at 3:55

Li, interesting observation.  The whole painting swirls in a spiral!  I still have to fix my wormy pink clouds; I deviated from the patterns in the resource photo that really caught my eye and that was a mistake.  I will repost when I finalize the painting with my corrections in the sky.   Thanks for your comments.    Stu

Comment by Ningning Li on October 29, 2013 at 3:16

Sturt, sorry, I realised that from the title, it is a scene of sunrise , not sunsets. People are so  lucky that I am not a medical doctor. By the way, I forgot to tell you that I enjoy the movement you created by the way you painted the road and the clouds. If I connect the moving lines of the road with lines of the clouds , it would form a anticlock moving ball, which makes the whole painting balanced and united. Very interesting. now I know why it attracks my eyes.

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on October 29, 2013 at 2:44

Sharon, I'm real careful; my pocket camera is perfect and I just put it up at the edge of my line of site, watching the roadway as I click; super easy. Not all the photos are that great but enough are good enough to paint from. It's all about capturing the moment. Stu

Comment by Sharon Casavant on October 29, 2013 at 2:38

be careful taking photos while driving...I do it too especially sunsets!  Ive gotten some really cool cloud patterns, too.

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on October 28, 2013 at 8:45

Thanks Carolyn.  Too much passion and not enough intellect painting this (refer to my comment below on the Ken Auster workshop I just finished).  The sky failed at the design phase (intellect) and then again at the refinement of edges and shapes (intellect) but slapping on the paint was great (passion).   I've got to translate that knowledge in my head onto the canvas; that's the hardest part of painting.   Stu

Comment by Carolyn Brunsdon on October 28, 2013 at 8:35

Awesome capture of this highway, commute scene Stu. Obviously you had no problems there. I believe the sky is the challenge for most of us. We are putting so much thought into it, it almost becomes a separate painting. I see that the "worms" made there attack in your sky, lol. (love all those quaint metaphors JV uses.)

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on October 28, 2013 at 8:29

Thanks Dor.  I still have a little re-design to do in the sky.  Have fun with your family (this will be easy with 3 young kids).   Stu

Comment by Dorian Aronson on October 28, 2013 at 7:52

Hi Stu

I am in Mississippi with my family of three great grand babies!  Just now getting to see this magnificent painting of your! Exceptional composition and beautiful colors.     Hugs & Smiles  : )) 

Comment by Ann Turner on October 26, 2013 at 13:25

Thank you for posting the "Sandwich" way of looking at a painting project. I find that some artists are long on passion and a little short on technique. These artists are often the most exciting and can learn the technique but with out the passion, whats the point ? Ken Auster is one of my favorite artists that presented at the Plein Air convention last year.

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on October 26, 2013 at 4:19

Sharon and Lori, thanks a lot.   Sharon, I am in complete aggreement with you and have a whole series of "windshield photos"; some of my best paintings have come from these photos.   Lori, it is burned in my mind and it is the best bridge commute in the Bay Area, in my opinion, because of the scenery and lack of traffic going the way that I do; it is such a relaxing drive that I am able to daydream and come up with creative ideas for at least 10 minutes of the commute--this is an incredible stress reliever.   That "tower" is some kind of a sign, and I am going to have to take a good look at it in the daytime, but I need to decide whether to keep it and change it or take it out; as you indicated, it is probably a good eye stopper to keep the eye in the picture, but a light pole could do the same thing.  Good that you are thinking about composition and design.  I am in the middle of a 3 day plein air workshop with Ken Auster and he is big on what he calls the "Passion Sandwich"; basically the design phase and layout of your painting on your canvas is the "Intellect" part of painting with the next phase of paint application to create your abstact underpainting the "Passion" part; this is followed by your tweaking and detailing of your paint and is another "Intellect" part.  Ken says you cannot put detail in with passion.  He says that if you don't apply your shapes with passion you are just rendering and your painting will have no life.   He compares this Intellect/Passion/Intellect process to an Oreo cookie, where the best part is in the middle.   Pretty cool workshop and he is one heck of an art teacher.   Stu

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