Painted on February 4, 2024. 10” x 10”. Acrylic on cradled wood panel.
Taking the ferry from qathet, heading South to Vancouver, always leaves me with a slight sense of melancholy. If you take the 6:00 pm ferry in March, you may be treated to a spectacular sunset that can’t help but lighten your mood. A silhouette of the forest behind Mermaid’s cove with Hardy Island and Texada Island bathed in golden evening light made a perfect Spring sunset and I was able to take a number of good reference photos.
As this was day 4 of the Opus Daily Practice challenge, the word was “Monochrome”, so I decided to do a very quick painting based on this photo which was various shades of gold and brown. Maybe not perfectly monochromatic, but pretty close. I started with one of the prepared panels that I painted a week ago in shades of yellow and grey. Using primarily Burnt Sienna, Oxide Yellow and Titanium White, I painted the view Westward from the back of the ferry. This was another very quick painting, it took me under an hour to complete and has a spontaneity that works well on such a small 10 by 10 inch painting.