Tonight there was a beautiful sunset. Lots of orange and blue shades blended together. Today was a beautiful, sunny winter day and this afternoon was one of those warm, slanted light afternoons. I noticed today that the days are starting to get longer. A sign that spring is coming, slowly and awhile off… but we are over that shortest day of the year part of winter and coming out the other side. 

I took this shot of the sunset with winter trees across the street from my house. I liked the contrast here. I did a quick wash for the background. I used two different oranges and a deep shade of navy blue. Only three colors in this painting. 

I added some Spruces, which I actually have on the other side of the yard adjacent to this, but didn’t catch in the photo. I painted this from real life looking at the spruces, then studied and added the trees. I just took the photo to show the concept. 

Here is the whole painting. 

I also wanted to share a neat trick I learned. I took some adult watercolor classes a few years ago, and one of the things my teacher taught us was that you can take smaller snapshots within the actual painting. Sometimes these end of being even better than the painting as a whole. I took a number of snaps “within” this painting. I like them better.

Liz