Toledo Cathedral, Spain

Another painting from the '98 Spain collection, this one was done in Toledo, no, not Toledo in Ohio, but the one about 70km South of Madrid. I had long since forgotten the name of the cathedral, but thanks to the internet I confirm that this is "Toledo Cathedral", funny but that is what I would have guessed in the first place. It was a truly spectacular cathedral... I considered not painting it due to the extreme detail, but in the end I figured what the heck. Never a bad idea to strech yourself.

It was obviously hot at the time (looking at the way the wash in the sky dried), and that is always good when you want to capture a lot of detail because the paint dries fast. If it is cool and humid, the paint dries slow and detailed brush strokes will bleed, thus becoming fuzzy. You can tell I'm writing grants as I feel compelled to use words like 'thus'. The strategy in this case was to 'represent' the detail rather than try to actually capture it all... the statues are just amorphous blobs, but in the end you get a similar visual effect as in real life. What I did get right-on was the colour of the brick, and the warmpth of the shadows. Look how the shadow under the front door is practically orange, this is due to the hot sun reflecting off the ground.

5x7" hot press. 1998