Solar Etude Painting

Note: This painting is currently offsite for a photo shoot with Traditional Home magazine. I will have it back in about 2 weeks. Our Sun is a 4.5 billion-year-old star – a hot glowing mass of hydrogen and helium – at the center of our solar system. This painting is not intended to be a depiction of reality (although it does retain certain elements as such). It is more an endeavor to impart a mood or a feeling, with just a suggestion of land masses, horizon, sky, and fog. I think this allows the viewer more freedom to enjoy the image and its elements imaginatively. For a long time, my paintings were concerned with form and atmosphere and how the shapes of form show up against the local color of the clouds and air. Recently, we had a lot of rain here in the Bay Area, and when it was over, I perceived how much the sun affects mood and ambiance with its wonderful variations in light and the warmth that you can feel from its rays.