Someone's Desert Sunset

D's Desert Sunset ©2015 Katherine Kean
oil on linen 6 x 6 inches

Every now and then someone will send me an image, usually a sky, that strikes them in a particular way, and ask me to paint it. I'm happy to do that when the subject is already aligned with what I have set out to do. The painting above is one such painting, with a few details added from my imagination.

Painting Dusk

Caspar David Friedrich A Walk at Dusk

Have you noticed how sometimes the sky at dusk creates an unbearable phenomena of color? I am often startled when I see it and pause to look and try to imagine what color, or combination of colors, might create the same indescribable low light effect in paint. I'm thinking of that almost colorless color that is still somehow full of light. The Friedrich painting above comes close in some ways to what I am thinking of.

Edward Hopper Shakespeare at Dusk

Conversely, sometimes at dusk one color seems to predominate. I suspect that part of the secret is in how our eyes perceive at this time of day. Hopper above, and Shaw below, nail down the effect simply and boldly.

George Shaw Scenes From the Passion: 10 Shilling Wood

Romantic pastoral or urban decadent, the indeterminate light of dusk compels with it's elusiveness, it's mystery, and it's mood - whatever that might be.

John Felsing Far From Babylon

Other well known favorites are George Innes, Atkinson Grimshaw, Dwight Tryon, the tonalists.

Suburban Murmuration 2 work in progress
©2015 Katherine Kean

This last one is a work in progress, with much to be done to the house.

For more on this topic from others follow these links:

Nocturne: prettiness in a face-off with edgelands grit

The Phenomenology of Twilight