Opening Day Print

I think my fascination with windows started with a field trip to the Detroit Zoo when I was a kid. I don't really remember the zoo but I do remember going through Detroit on the school bus and looking up at all of the windows on the tall buildings. I was mesmerized. I remember thinking that each one was like an eye to the world for the people living there. So many stories behind them all. I’ve always taken photos and made paintings of windows. The light and shadow can be so dramatic in front of a window and that can help frame a composition in such exciting ways. I love when the light starts to engulf the subject and there are moments where things get lost, and then found again. It's just so much fun to paint. And the colors! Especially in this one; every color of the rainbow here. Lavenders and complimentary sunny yellows, glowing oranges and cool blues, even little pops of reddish pinks and a whole spectrum of greens. This one was a symphony of subtle color. And the light and shadow was so much fun to sort out as well. Light and shadow can also be helpful with setting a mood, telling a story. I always look for a strong light and shadow theme when composing a painting. For painters it can be more about the light and shadow on the subjects than it is about the subjects themselves. I can paint any subject, it's really not about the "thing" for me. It's about the light on the thing. I painted an interestingly lit can of Spam once. It's that perfect light I'm after and it's effects on things around it. We can't see color, or anything without light. It's a painters job to study light. We can't do color well, or shading, unless we understand light. Low morning light, or evening. Warm, yellow-pink are considered best for painting. It gets too cool and blue once the sun gets high in the sky and you lose the nice shadows. The Impressionists really taught us this because they were painting outside and that's where you can really see it.