Day to Night

Did you know that an artist is so powerful, we can change day into night?   Yes, its true!     This past spring when out hiking, I took photos (imagine that!) of the creek behind my home.    Like it often happens, when I look at the photo later, meh, its not as grand as I thought at the time.  But I did like the composition of the photo; the lay of the land, so to speak.   So I thought this would be a good time to try an exercise I'd been thinking of....

I wanted to use a photo that no longer seemed so worthy,  and making it work in some other way.   I set out to change either the season, palette or time of day.   I did some thumbnails and then put the photo in black n white on my computer so I could concentrate on values, not colors. 

In this original photo, I mainly liked how the creek drew the eye into the landscape.   But being Spring, it was too much of the same green, the trees were boring and the sky completely washed out.  I decided I wanted to add the mood of a moonlit evening, complete with fireflies.


  

"Firefly Dance"  9x12 pastel  $150.

  Its not easy changing the day to night!  It really stretched my artistic eye, but I think it turned out well in the end.  I will try this idea again in some way.    It could open up many new ideas, letting me add my own 'self' into the paintings rather than just being a copier.    It was just a lot of fun!