London Rhino Party

London Ontario was home for a decade, I painted a lot outdoors when I was there, summer, fall, winter, there are over 200 paintings from that time. This one was done downtown outside of the art gallery Museum London, in the heat of the summer when the grass was dry and the cicadas buzzing. I was interested in the reflections on the metal surface of the Rhinocerous sculpture, it reminds me a lot of the famous Chicago landmark "Cloud Gate" a giant shiny bean shaped thing in Millennium park (although it probably did not exist at the time I painted this one). Note the green grass reflection on the underbelly, and the blue sky and clouds reflected on the side of the beast.

I used a common trick to make the reflections really sparkle...juxtaposition of light and dark...look on top of the Rhino's back, there is a thin sliver of 'sun reflection' which is actually white paper showing through, and just on top of that, there is the dark green from the vines from the the building in the background. I selected this sitting location specifically to have this arrangement of foreground and background. Choosing where to site is half the battle! By juxtaposing the dark against the light, it makes the light look even brighter. The impressionists used this trick all the time to create luminous cloth, candles, and other eye-popping highlights. To make this work though, you need to use the trick sparingly... in this painting there is only one spot where I juxtapose the white and dark... the rhinos back. All other parts of the painting have a lower contrast, which makes the key point (the sun reflection) the highest contrast part of the painting, and thus enhances the illusion further.

5x8" cold press. 2002 (?)