It’s been so warm in California that it’s hard to believe it’s winter here. The warmer weather has brought wonderful opportunities to paint outside in comfort. During one of the warm days I was able to paint a deck scene that was a quiet and peaceful still life.
It’s been so warm in California that it’s hard to believe it’s winter here. The warmer weather has brought wonderful opportunities to paint outside in comfort. During one of the warm days I was able to paint a deck scene that was a quiet and peaceful still life.
A deck with chairs can be a peaceful place to paint. It’s actually a type of still life made up of horizontal, diagonal and vertical lines. The chairs themselves are made up of many horizontal lines, which are calming in their nature. The deck adds some movement with the vertical uplifting lines of the railing. Then the tree trunks and the branches add more vertical and some diagonal lines.
Somehow all the lines merge into a calming environment with only a pumpkin and several plants for company. Another calming attribute of the painting is that many of the tones are variations of gray or brown. The small pumpkin and several of the plants are the only objects with saturated color.
The warm colors of the deck railing are pretty balanced with the violet colors in the deck wood and the pale greens and blues in the background. When you have warm or vibrant colors they tend to move forward and capture your attention. When you have muted color, the scene is much more calming as is evidenced by this painting.