Auto shops at night, but not the usual one

If you follow my blog you know that I paint the auto shop across the street from our condo, mostly because if its proximity, and the great sunset backdrops and other atmospheric effects. Today I painted a brand name auto shop called Midas, but replaced the name on the sign with my name. To create the illusion that the sign is illuminated yellow, I kept the yellow chroma max, and made the rest of the painting a neutral greyish. Highlights on the car roofs helped complete the effect. The street lights were also visible at this time of day. You have to paint a scene like this with your brain as much as your eyes and hands, because the lack of light and dim conditions make it hard to judge. So on location, I kind of imagine what the final painting needs to be and do it with a strategy. It takes experience to make this work, and since 2020 I painted a lot of night paintings and learned a lot. There is a page on night painting techniques. It has over 150 views which is neat, most of the technique pages have been viewed numerous times.

Midas touch PJD, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2024

 

This is Montreal obviously but it has middle east writing that looks to be Arabic, but the colour scheme and style suggests to me that it is Iranian, with the language being Farsi. They were still working hard well after work hours, both garage doors were open and illuminating the cars in the parking lot. Doing these paintings at dusk is harder than it seems, I try to pick one key highlight element and make sure that works as a focal point. For example, here the garage on the left has pure white elements and strong yellows that do not appear elsewhere in the painting, which creates a focal point. In the last painting its more obvious, I included a massive yellow oval sign that draws the eye in. Without the highlight element, the scene runs the risk of degenerating into a puddle of grey goo.

Middle east autoshop night, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, September 2024