What else was there to paint other than the Pharmacy on a wet night? I stood under the Metro grocery store overhang looking across the street and was most inspired by the colours reflecting in the wet road. I had painted this scene before on a clear full moon night, so I knew how the architecture and the sign lighting worked. I wasn't sure how strong the reflection and interior lighting would come across, it was only when I filled in the sky with the classic PO73 plus PB60 combo that it all came together. I was surprised to learn from Handprint.com (Macevoy) that dark colours still have high chroma. Its a misunderstanding that I think a lot of artists make. Conventionally, you would mix indo blue with burnt sienna to make it dark, but that has the effect of lowering the chroma. Dark colours can in fact be high in chroma, that is, colour saturation otherwise called colour purity. The red brick in the upper left was done with benzi scarlet (PR175) and carbon black (PBk6) to get that rich deep dark maroon. It seems wrong that black and red gives a rich colour, but the conventional wisdom of mixing red and a green (like PG7) will actually neutralize the chroma giving a dull red. Its something I learned on Macevoy's page, and have now learned to maximize with extensive practice painting at night. At the end of the day it wont matter, only the art remains, so if any technique can yield an enjoyable outcome that it is worth exploring.
Pharmacy on a wet night, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, February 2024
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