I stayed home for the eclipse and had a very interesting afternoon. I spent the morning making several eclipse viewers. (I wanted to make sure at least one worked!) We were expecting a 98% eclipse here in Marietta Georgia with the peak at 2:36. I decided to start my daily painting while I waited.
As the eclipse started I would step outside of my studio to check on the progress. Then I would work in the painting. A funny thing happened to the evolution of the painting during the eclipse.
It seemed to change the same way the sky was changing. I didn't do this on purpose but it is interesting how it unfolded. It was if the mood and light in the sky changed in my painting as it changed in my backyard! Have a look at the photos I took of the painting's progress.
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| My eclipse viewers |
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| Beginning with a notan underpainting |
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| First steps completed before the start of the eclipse |
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Eclipse started. Excited and anticipating the darkening of the sky
Took a break from my painting to go back outside. |
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| Just after the peak when the sky was a deep blue violet in my backyard |
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The eclipse about finished with the sky becoming brighter again.
I noticed I was drawn to brightening the sky in my painting. |
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The finish. A brighter and sunnier mood than how it began!
And I decided I didn't like the little path. |
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| I took a lot of photos of the cool shadows |
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Just before peak the sky got deep blue violet.
I live in the land of trees and this is my view of the sky. |
Oh, I just watched all the light and changes in color and light throughout the eclipse! I loved seeing what you did by painting through it. I wouldn't even have tried, too fleeting an impressionist moment!
ReplyDeleteHere in Arkansas it got to about 90% and it was dark, but not twilight. Colors in the landscape were saturated and seemed more so in relation to a suddenly lighter sky, which seemed more muted. It was the light levels of sunset with the near-noon hues of day, and the blue shadows on the road or concrete walkways looked more muted and so much darker.
I took reference photos of the tree shadows and one of the colander we used as a pin hole viewer - it was gorgeous seeing it in all the different holes in the colander shadow. The tree shadows were beautiful and fleeting. The light levels affected my photography the same way, it was too dim and the shadows way too dark to get any detail within them so they came out even darker than they looked.
I tried to memorize the color and light effects so I can do a painting of the goat pen area and just title it "Eclipse" with the crescent-decorated tree shadows to give the viewer the idea that no, this is not just a botched landscape with funny light!