My Seattle Skyline

Last week, a group of friends and I went out to a painting class, where we were all taught how to paint the same painting, the Montgomery skyline.  A couple of the ladies were from San Antonio, so they painted that skyline, and I painted the Seattle skyline.  Since I have many fond memories of my time there, it only seemed natural for me to do so; but it was a last minute call.  I'm so glad that I went for it.  I share with you here, the three main stages of the evolution of the painting.  The painting style is in the flare of Van Gough's Starry Night.

Stage 1.  I created the sky with long sideways brush strokes in shades of blue.

Stage 2.  I painted the black skyline and afterwards filled in the buildings in black.  I then used white for highlighting the edges of the buildings.  I blended it in with the black paint, followed by dry brush strokes at the end to create a shimmering effect, as well as to add texture.  From the bottom of the buildings on downwards, I painted the rest of the canvas black.  Over it, in different shades of blue, I created the water with fast random sideways brush strokes of differing lengths.

3. Completing the painting: 

Next was the sky.  I made the moon, a large yellow circle, and other smaller yellow and white circles (stars).  I worked with shades of yellow with yellow and white paint.  Then, in small thin brush strokes, wavelike motions, and a small round brush, I created the shimmering starry night effect.  The little dashed wavelike lines are in yellow, white and shades of blue, blending in with the night sky.  Lastly, I created the shimmering lights reflecting over the water.  I painted small dots, thick at the base and thinning out towards the tops, like a bunch of grapes, and then, in the opposite direction, towards the bottom of the canvas.  At the base of the buildings line, in shades of blue, I used long grass like shaped strokes to create the reflection of the water onto the buildings.  After I took my painting home, I hung it over a large corner photo stand.  We have a water theme I think, starting in the living room.  I hope to continue growing this theme with other paintings.

Shades of Blue ~ Tile

My tile in shades of blue was so enjoyable to make.  For a few hours, being out at Artistic Expressions with some of our lovely JAG Air Force spouses, I had the opportunity to decompress from the stresses of the day, forget about everything, and just focus on colors and textures.  It was pretty much art therapy for me.  I made the circles with different sized sponges, and the smallest circles with the back side of the sponge stick.  I started with the largest circles as a backdrop and created several layers of circles of various sizes on top of that.  Next, I will make two more tiles with the same circle theme in two other colors and shades of that color.  Once my set of three tiles is completed, I will hang them vertically as a collection display.