After another busy day taking care of administrative stuff for the coming year I made it to the studio with my friend Rich Brimer, the landscape painter, where we spent a pleasant hour together. I painted while he sat and kept me company. I find that whatever part of my brain it is that takes care of painting has absoutely nothing to do with the side that takes care of conversation, so I can perfectly happily chat on the phone or with other people while I’m working. I wonder if that’s a common experience amongst painters.
Anyway, I knew that the sky was too dark almost exactly where it should be light so that the sun was concealed behind clouds above and to the right of the pilgrim, giving him something to gesture toward. My thinking here is that he is aware of the glory of the creation, and the mind of god while simultaneously oblivious to his future, which is clearly soon to be punctuated by a fall when he reaches the precipice on the pathway he’s about to reach. With head back and not observing the danger he is in he continues on his path toward the sunrise, careless and carefree.
Lead white, scraped on with a palette knife, with a soft brush applied to the upper edges below the sun, the lower edges above the sun. I might do more, bringing it toward the left of the canvas over and around his head.
Next a glaze of white over the lower part of the sky, then another glaze of that lovely Iron Oxide to restore the yellows and oranges to the hozizon.
Photo from my iPhone, not very good quality.
