I did a demonstration at the Leighton Centre on Saturday June 1 for their annual Clothesline Sale.  It is always a very  enjoyable event.  Lots of people, lots going on, and  a chance to catch up with friends and fellow artists.  After the rain yesterday, today was beautiful.  Sunny all day. Unfortunately, as you can see I forgot to take a hat and I don’t do well in the full sun so I’m paying for it tonight.  But it was a great day.  I enjoyed the day  and I’m very pleased with the painting.  It’s of the Barley Mill at Eau Claire.

As I heard someone say recently, the real subject of a painting like this is not the objects, the people etc but it’s the light and this painting I think has a very strong sense of that wonderful yellow light.

I also enjoyed  having nearly all the figures work as lights against a darker background.  Lately I had fallen into a bit of a trap of always trying to make the figures very dark.  However when you have a dark figure against a dark background there is no contrast and it’s boring or muddy.  So I like the fact that the figures are all lighter than the background.  The lightness of the figures in this painting was achieved by mixing in a little white gouache with cobalt or ultramarine blue.