Sunsets
Blind Artist Vision: blog by Stella De Genova
Our half of the world turns away from the sun each day – that’s what we have concluded is a day. And so we have a sunset! When we are not too busy in our daily lives, we can stop, look and be in awe of this amazing ever-repeating occurrence.
Sunrise and sunset have been described in poetry, stories, music, and art. The sun is, itself, a work of art, created by whomever or whatever we choose to believe. Godly or scientific, the sun can give us the warmth we all need or can be the demise of the boy who flies to close to it.
Today I am thinking of sunsets in particular. They can be soft and subdued or dramatic or play hide-and-seek behind the clouds. For those of us artists who try to connect with nature through our paintings, attempting sunsets is a never ending exercise. To make my point personally, here are some of mine!
I used to feel very intimidated by a sunset but now I just try to have fun with colors. Even if my colors aren’t exact, a sky at sunset has every color of the rainbow in it so anything goes. Of course, there are some basic rules. Since pastel painting consists of many layers of color, I always use a sanded pastel paper, which has more “tooth” to hold the pastels. I start with darker colors and work toward softer colors for the sky and clouds. I once thought that a sky should be one smooth surface, but that is so not true. I try to use a soft touch so the colors layer over each other but still keep some luminosity so as to see more than one color at a time. I think the most rewarding part of looking at sunsets as a subject for a painting is that there are endless possibilities. And just as I feel that we can never truly capture the magnificent vastness of a mountain view in a painting or photo, the same holds true for the breathtaking beauty of sunsets but as artists, we will never stop trying.
Quick question to answer as soon as it pops into your head: What is the first song you can think of about the sun?
My answer is “O Sole Mio", an old Neapolitan song, sung by tenors around the world. It translates to "My sun" as the tenor sings about the beauty of the sun on his city of Naples. Classic!
Comments