Oil on panel, 14x11
Here is a backlit scene painted on site at Ken Thompson Park in Sarasota, Florida. It was around 8:45 in the morning, and I was facing into the light. The buildings and boats were surrounded with dazzling light and reflections. When painting a backlit scene, I use more greys because the objects appear as silhouettes. Painting white objects backlit by strong light is tricky because the white areas are actually darker than the surrounding light. In this painting, I used lavender-grey on the whitest boats. I added a little cadmium yellow to the white paint in the reflections. This also creates contrast of warm (white & yellow) against cool (white & lavender) areas. I kept the edges as soft as possible, especially on the buildings in the background. This helps create the illusion of light surrounding the objects. My main objective when I began this painting was to create a feeling of unity of light and atmosphere throughout the entire painting.
