Solar Eclipse over Commuter Train

Earlier in the week there was a complete solar eclipse that lasted for about a minute and a half in Montreal. I walked down to the train tracks and made a location painting, which I started about ten minutes before the eclipse and completed just after totality. The initial painting captured the raw energy of the scene, but I was taken by surprise at the actual moment of the event, the sky washed over with dark blue, stars were visible, shadows disappeared and the passing commuter train's headlights were visible against the surrounding darkness. Keep in mind, all this happened at 3:30PM on an otherwise blue sky afternoon! This version is a re-paint with a redesigned composition and stronger light/shadow contrast. I brought the train more towards the middle, dropped the horizon line to the 1/3 mark, de-emphasized the railroad posts, showed the entire eclipsed sun/moon combo, and added stars. 

To paint the eclipse effect, I made a circle of water, then filled in the dark blue sky with the glowing rings and stars, which are done by leaving the paper showing. The dark blue was indo blue and pyrol orange (PB60 + PO73), faded to a dilute pyrol orange with benzi orange (PO62) at the horizon. When it all dried I applied the moon using indo blue plus red ochre (PR101) and some carbon black (PBk6). Since I was painting in my studio (also known as our kitchen table) I could control the solar disc effect to create that feathery texture around the moon.
 

Solar Eclipse over Commuter Train, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, April 2024 (No. 3866)