Based on a street recommendation, I lugged the ol’ easel back to Brera. After nearly two hours of searching, I came upon exactly the street I was looking for – Via Rovello. With a convergence point at the end of the road, I couldn’t resist and thus got to work.
This painting experience was exceptional, particularly because when I woke up, Jet Lag had just hacked through my bedroom door with an axe screaming “Here’s Johnny!” Fortunately, some espresso pushed me out the door and to the streets of Milan.
All set up.
It always starts with getting the basic drawing down, in the standard red-from-the-tube.
For some reason, the layout was calling for large red swatches, so I listened to the sounds of the street (which is something I now appreciate even more, thanks to Haruki Murakami’s Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World – courtesy of Erin.)
Maybe it was the second hand smoke, or the romantic streets of Italy, but I felt like forgoing the normal Hooker’s Green and getting right into the colors.
More of the same color mixed ala carte, in my mind, all day, “I am a colorist, I am a colorist, I am a colorist.”
Establishing nearly the entire canvas, base tones.
As you can imagine, with such a narrow sliver of light, I was forced to make a foreground lighting decision from the inception of the painting.
A reflective purple… you can really feel the complements when they near one another.
Ah, nothing like adding a round of deep red and deep green mixed together to create dark.
Fall tones permeating the canvas… I hadn’t stippled this much since high school art class.
Getting close with some reflective pinks…
Fin. Here’s looking forward to what tomorrow will bring. I will likely head back to Brera to find a similar street, since it was so pleasurable to paint.
Keep the great work coming! Have fun over there and drink a Cappuccino for me!