Since I live between two lakes, I am often treated to some glorious sunrises and sunsets along the water.
When the sun rises and hits the fog, everything is perfectly illuminated. The sky comes alive.
I built this painting in stages, mainly by color.
The colors are fruity and fragrant. I started with lemon yellow and tangerine orange, establishing the sky and the horizon. You get a sense of the rising sun from the juxtaposition of deep yellow and fresh orange. It’s almost as if it smells like a citrus grove.
I followed the yellow and orange with a lovely cranberry color, dripping in dark corners and solidifying the ground to give it weight and mass amid all the light streaming over the horizon.
Bright pink accentuates the cranberry, which is offset by rich, deep muscadine purple and warm reddish-brown tones to further solidify and anchor the ground, which is warm despite the early morning.
This painting is a fresh blast of warm air, the surging of a brand-new day.