The Road

Ah, paintings at night. These are extremely difficult to do. Painting outside is a challenge. I live in Florida and the bugs are numerous and relentless. My single light I use to illuminate the easel also attracts every one of them. I use clove oil with my medium and that smell causes them to fly right into the painting and, of course, stick right to it. I spend a lot of time plucking them off. How fun. Plus, moving my eye from the highly lit board to the near darkness and back again to the board is very taxing on the eyes after about an hour. So I have to do a painting over many nights. However, photographing anything is nearly impossible. To get the light right is so hard given the extremes of light and really, you can't see much in a photo in the very dark areas. When I am standing there, I see the subtle differences. And any bright lights are totally washed out, so I have to take many, many pictures at just one location to get the information I need to make a painting.

This piece is 9"x 16" and its a perfect example of all of the above. Plus, when you are out there in the dark, people wonder what the hell you are doing. I am sure it looks suspicious with the white van, too. But people, I am hanging out a while because I am trying to get this whole painting thing right, not plan some elaborate heist or mugging.