Here is a painting of an iconic scene of the Lake at Downtown Columbia.
If you know Columbia, MD, you will recognize the fountain. It is two stories tall and shaped like a huge cement bowl. You can walk onto the plaza to the top level and look down at the water below, or go the bottom enjoy another view. |
| Painting, The Fountain at Columbia Town Center © Adron 2019 |
If you are in the Columbia, MD area contact me to arrange a viewing before you decide to buy it.
The composition of the picture is insane from an artist point of view. It has a powerful central focus, but the contrasting lines pull your eye into and out of the scene. The handrail leads you in and up from the left and then out across the right, the red brick road guides your eye forward into the picture but halts at the fountain where the downward curve of the bottom leads your eye out again. The background pulls your eyes back and forth across the scene, but you find your eye going down the railing or out the brick. The white cement steps lead your eyes in and up, then across the three pillars leaving you to drift between the two lamp lights and the fountain spray.
These different lines affect how I would work things like shadows, hues, and values, so this painting kept forcing me to stop and reconsider my steps as I progressed, I felt as if I was constantly starting over, but I was only trying to integrate conflicting elements.
Anyway, it was a fun day to paint. I set my easel up on the lawn to the right of the brick pavement where a tree gave shade, which was nice since it was a hot day. I started with a sketch in blue and then began to put in the background sky. Next, using a large one-inch flat brush, I worked the picture from the top to the bottom to establish the basic shapes and colors of the picture. Over the next three hours, the process of painting the picture was a simple task of working the whole picture over with progressively smaller brushes each time so that details emerged.
When the canvas is blank no one says much, but people stop to look and chat as the painting progresses. A bunch of kids watched and offered advice. They were particularly concerned that the water splash and the flowers on the lamp were postponed since I save the details for the end, but when they were added their approval was extremely gratifying.
The picture was detailed a little more at home where the cool air allowed for the use of a liner brush since dryish tacky paint does not lend to fine lines.
I am very proud of this painting and believe that the fountain a the lake in downtown Columbia will be a theme that I will return to often.
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Adron ©2019
