Last night as I walked out to the barn, I paused to admire the stars, it being a clear night with a small crescent moon. My dog Ginger was bouncing around me waiting for me to continue to the barn for feeding time, I had to watch awhile. I watched them twinkling and thought again about how people all over the world are connected when they look up at the stars and moon. I noticed too how the light cast from the barn made the trees glow against the dark sky, the lighting from below was haunting. It was just then I saw a bright shooting star fly over the trees…with bright sparkling colors behind it; it didn’t have a long tail, but a very brilliant short one.
This is the painting taped to the table (it’s 5″x7″), I used a liquid friskit with the pen tip to quickly sketch the trees on. They are a little clumsy but I meant to do it as a quick sketch, and have some liveliness to it. The stars came out a bit too big so later I had to paint them in a bit.
After the liquid friskit is dry and only then, is it ok to do liberal washes over it. The friskit keeps the paper white, I should have taken a photo to show you how bright and ‘garish’ it looked when I rubbed it off. My son Paul loved the look, kind of modern but a bit too stark for me. I brushed over the trees liberally with browns and then used a damp brush to lift color around the tree tops…a softening effect to suggest the finer branches and glow.
This is my tiny kit with the Altoids tin of watercolors, I mixed my paints on the metal pencil case. The last thing I did was put a little color in behind the shooting star, I took note of this right when I saw it and that’s what I found fascinating about it.So that’s it, a little sketch of a shooting star…and oh yes…I DID WISH UPON IT!! (but I’m not telling! 😉
I love this. We have woods at the back of our house, and it often looks very similar to your picture. Well done.
Did you get my email OK?
Happy new year
Doda
Hi Doda,
great to hear from you and yes I did get your email, I have to find it again in the piles of mail! I wanted to send you a nice reply and probably got buried under the holidays! I’ve just searched for your email and can’t find it, would you send me a quicky note again so I can reply? Thanks.
I just had a look at your blog the other day, Loved the frost photos!
I’m getting excited about returning to England, can’t wait!
Happy New Year to you and your family!
Mary