July brings us longer days and beautiful summer nights. We wanted to celebrate and explore the beauty of the evening – the alluring city lights and and the bewitching night skies – in our upcoming exhibit ‘Nocturne ~ Night Scenes featuring Angela Bandurka & Ron Stocke’.
From Angela Bandurka:
“I’ve been drawing to painting night scenes for a couple of years, beginning in my studio painting candles. The light is so unique when you paint in the dark – and the challenge of painting with a small lamp on my canvas and palette are exhilarating. This upcoming series of nocturnal images deal with a city at night, and looking into store windows and the peaceful solitude of the city in the evening after the shops have closed. I used resource photography for most of the paintings I’m working on this time around, which presents its own challenges. Getting to my settings before it’s fully dark, but allowing the contrast to be heightened after the sun sets. Playing with cool and warm light sources. I limited my palette, using no black but instead a mix of browns and blues for my darks which allowed me to switch between warm and cool darks easily without making my painting look heavy or muddy. I have really enjoyed painting these pieces and look forward to continuing the series.”
From Ron Stocke:
“Night scenes can be a challenge for watercolorist. Most of the time the sky is our lightest value in a painting, but when painting a nocturnal piece, your darkest values are usually in the sky. This presents a challenge of where to begin your piece. For me, it’s all about the light. Daylight can be more harsh with a single, bright light source coming from above. Night scenes can be lit by multiple sources of light in any direction, in different color temperatures, and with varied shadows. This gives me the freedom to play with lost and found edges, to create interesting and dramatic reflections, and silhouetted figures – all of which can really impact the mood of the painting. This series was exhilarating to create as it was technically challenging and at the same time allowed for some exciting artistic expression.”
Join us for a special evening of wine and hors d’oeuvres, celebrating these artists at the Nocturne Show on Saturday July 9th, 6:30-9:00pm.
Cole Gallery ~ An Artist's Point of View 