Bougainvillea
Plein Air Paintings |
The Red Door16 x 20 Plein Air Painting |
Painted at the Bird Farm on Catalina Island, during the PAPA event, during it's first years on the island. A favorite place for me! Went back each year to find out how to do it differently.
One year I was approaching the building from the back side, and was over whelmed with sorrow. My first response was to leave. Then I stopped myself from such "foolishness," and went around to the front to do my annual painting.
Not only was the doorway painted powder blue, all of the bougainvilleas had been torn out (I found out later, so they could paint the building!!) It seemed that each year I would lose one favorite spot after another. Kind of like a child growing up, and not being able to run home, to the "known," and comfort of those things that are familiar.
My challenge with this painting, was to create sunlight on a red door,
and contrast it against the shadow and light of the pink flowering bush.
In art, that is easier said than done. You see, the color red is a DARK color.
If one adds white to it, it turns pink. So, to create the illusion of the red being drenched in sunlight, I made it a transparent color, so that light would pass through it, hit the white canvas, pass back through it to your vision, and appear light!
See, it's all illusionary, all "tricks of the trade"...just gotta know how to apply them!!
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All Text and Images Copyright Betty Jean Billups. All Rights Reserved.
Address: P.O. Box 102, Sandpoint, ID 83864