Auto Shop Night Grey

Just the other day I was thinking about doing another painting of the auto shop across the street, and so I sat down out on the garden ledge and did one this evening. Lately, my condo updated the exterior lighting which transformed the previous situation (no working light) to what it is now, a blazing bright LED floodlight. It was so bright that I could sit out in front of the condo and make a night painting without using the headlamp. The nice thing about LED lighting is that it projects a broad spectrum which makes the colour accuracy easier to achieve as compared to painting under an amber light where everything appears to be yellow and grey. I was hoping to make a night painting of the local sunflowers but they still have not bloomed properly after a slow start to the growing season. Getting back to the painting of today, I embellished some of the light/shadow elements to recreate the ethereal glow of the auto shop flood lights illuminating the car, nearby building, ground and sidewalk. Since they (Joe and Ralph I presume) painted the building grey it is a lot less interesting. To compare, you can look at a 2021 painting when the walls were dark red, also known as maroon. Looking at that older painting of a similar subject, I also see how far I have come along as a painter in the past few years. The 2021 painting has a lot of energy and the lamp seems to be blazing, but the detail was lacking. The current painting depicts a calm atmosphere with a subtle greenish cast across the scene, and crisp details throughout the scene.

Auto Shop Night Grey, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, August 2023 (No. 3514a)