This morning I went to Hermann Park to paint, I set up my french easel overlooking the large pond in the park, facing east. This was mid morning with the sun behind the trees, a new vantage point for me. Hermann Park is next to the Medical Center here in Houston so there are always building peeking over the treetops. I love to paint buildings whether they’re skyscrapers or barns. This was the first crane I’ve ever painted and I just noticed it looks a little like a cross.
I would consider this an “urban landscape” and I love ’em! I can remember taking a landscape class and everyone else was painting serene views of hills, fields, and trees, but my paintings always had to have some kind of building in them, usually a barn. I think the structures add a human element to the paintings, like a kind of footprint that humans were there. Anyway, for whatever reason, I love to put buildings in my paintings.
The park is always interesting, there are people milling around, lots and lots of ducks and geese in the water, and this morning a nutria (large rat like animal that lives near water, but cute) was hanging around. It’s really a great place to paint.
This painting is oil on a linen panel and is 8″x8″.
BEAUTIFUL, Joan!! Love the colors! This is the kind of painting that can’t be achieved using photographic reference. Well done!
Thank you! The colors were challenging, but you’re right, had I done this from a photograph I think the whole painting would have been more green. It’s amazing how often we (I) paint what we know instead of what we see.
Joan
I love the softness of this and the composition. We know this day…
This is stunning, Joan, so soft and evocative.