What Does it Mean

This painting makes a play on all different sources of light. The city in the background is illuminated in a warm red, the trees in the middleground lit by the cool blue moon light, and the sign in the front basking in the yellow light from the lantern. The pond in the middle reflects all three light sources. As for the question posed by the painting's title (What Does it Mean?), the sign shows symbols that I copied off a bottle of chinese black ink, and incidentally, I do not know what it means.

Producing these lighting-effects is complicated, but essential for art that really glows. To create the illuminated moon, I start by putting down a pale blue wash with a circle in the middle left without paint (the moon). To this wash, I outline the moon with a slightly darker blue tone to give the moon the illusion of brightness. Then I surround the pale blue wash with the darker blue/purple of the sky. The red colour of the city was actually placed first, and the dark sky was painted over top, creating the shape of the city line, and also providing a red glow in the sky.

What Does it Mean, watercolour 5.5 x 7.5" cold press, 2008 (No. 1721)