Sunset, Thursday, 23 April 2009

Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on linen, 16 x 20.We’re experiencing “technical difficulties” – i.e., e.g., a dead camera battery – and hope to have the sunset up sometime tonight. 

I can tell you it’s mostly clear, largely blue (three different pigments of blue, plus sepia, and titanium-zinc white, if you’re taking notes), violet (rose madder and cobalt blue), magenta (rose madder and titanium white), and a haze made of white, Naples yellow, and cobalt blue. The mountains were very clear and dark (Prussian and cobalt blue), and the woods are in full Spring mode, which means they’ve got everything from bare umber to pale green, budding red oaks (azo orange), and blossoming redbuds, dogwoods, poplars, you name it – merging as Gamblin’s wonderful radiant violet, radiant yellow, and brown-pink. Plus sepia – always have to have sepia, it grounds everything.

Does that help?