Painting Sunset Light

 I mentioned earlier, like the first day I was here, that I'm just as obsessed with  the brilliant color of sunset light as I was three years ago.

Aside from the sunset itself, there's two places it's most dramatic -- my living room wall and the facades of the townhouses facing the ocean.  I haven't painted them every day, but I've painted both a fair bit while I've been here and as I'm getting ready to move on, here's where things stand.  I have tried watercolor vs gouache, pre-drawing vs looser painting and a lot of color adjusting.  Both of these are gouache in my larger sketchbook.

For reference, below are the photos of what I'm painting -- I've been painting from life but the light is fleeting, so I've also been referring to the photos for refinements as I am trying to get closer to what I see.  I feel like the hours I spend today on the painting of the townhouses have worked out well.   Not so much the interior, I think I have a ways to go to get luminosity and balance the color in the space.  I liked my original watercolor sketch and maybe I need to return to the watercolor for that one.

the first sketch -- I think it works better than my subsequent paintings, so more work to do!

I spent the day painting because I was up late into the night making some adjustments to my travel plans!  There are many pieces to deal with -- hotels, flights, travel credits, etc -- and I've bumped up against some rules about what I can and can't do when I change/cancel plans.   A fortunate discovery was the "use by" date for a travel credit that was due to expire January 15, and that led to making reservations for my summer travel to Maine in addition to shifting my plans for next week..  It was exhausting.

 It's a gorgeous sunny warm day so I was happy (and sleepy) to sit on my patio and paint and read.  

The adjustments I've made are to shorten the days at my next destination, a beach town on the Western coast that's a surfer destination (but not THE 100 foot wave town, it's south of that place).  I think 3 days there will be great instead of the 5 I'd planned.  Instead, I'm going to head to Copenhagen a couple of days early so I have 5 days there instead of 3.  It's cold, windy and snowy there, but there's a lot to do indoors.  Tomorrow I have lunch planned at a restaurant I ate at 3 years ago, amazing food and I'm so excited about it.  Monday onto my next Portugal destination and then Thursday to Copenhagen.