Pont des Arts (Institut de France), Paris, France

Pont des Arts is a famous bridge in France, on one side you have the Institut de France (seen in the painting), and on the other side you have le Louvre. I guess it is silly to call this bridge famous, aren't they all famous in Paris? This one is noted for 'love locks' that's when people bring a pad lock, put their initials on it and a heart, and attach it to the bridge. If you really squint at the bridge in the painting you will see the locks... just kidding.

There is an old adage for artists, paint what you see, not what you think.... this is good advice for a landscape painter (but not so much for a surrealist abstract painter). In this painting, the Seine river is depicted as I SAW it... green, muddy, choppy, somewhat disgusting looking water. If I had painted what I THOUGHT, I may have made the river blue...  isn't water blue? So when I paint, I really try to shed any pre-conceived notions about what things should be, and I just paint what I see. It is interesting to compare the similarities between this painting (done in 1998) and a recent painting called "Scene on the Seine", the water looks remarkably similar.

I'll briefly explain how to paint the dome, it is a little technical though.... Start with a layer of pale yellow with a slight touch of warm red (rose madder, or a red lake, or frnch vermillion), make the layer into the shape of the dome. Wait for it to completely dry. Next you need to make the wedge shaped panels on the dome... on the top they are reflecting the blue from the sky, and on the bottom they are showing their natural colour, a rich velvety cool blue. To make this effect do a two-tone wash. Two-tone washes are extremely useful so I'll explain how....  mix a medium-heavy blue using cereulean, a touch of french ultramarine, a touch of rose madder, then paint the wedges on the dome, leaving gaps between them for the golden yellow to show. Now, go back to the paint you mixed on the pallette and make it darker, you do that by putting in a little bit of alzarian crimson (a dark red), and vermillion green (a dark green),  alternatively, daub in some paynes gray.... if you're on a budget mix french ultramarine and burnt sienna. Then load your brush and add a little of the darker version to the bottom of each wedge while it is still wet/moist. If the dark mix is too watery you get a backwash... the trick is feeling out the right amount of moisture on your brush which takes a lot of practice, and working fast because if the first wash dries it won't look smooth.

5x7" cold press. 1998