"CITY TWILIGHT," 10130, daily painter original cityscape © Carol Nelson Fine Art

I haven't done very many cityscapes. This particular image was on a commercial photography site. I paid a fee for the rights to reproduce the image in a painting. This is a scene in Denver, CO, but it could one of several major cities.

What attracted me to the image was the dramatic last rays of sunlight shining on the buildings and the reflection of that light bouncing off the railroad tracks. That photographer had to be in the right spot at just the right moment. Doing a complex painting such as this, in a small 7x5 format was a real challenge. I had to simplify, yet still detail the buildings enough to suggest the windows and architecture.

This 7x5 inch painting is available for $100. Click here to go to my website for more information.

==========================================

My website is with Fine Art Studios Online (FASO). The folks at FASO have a monthly Bold Brush art competition that anyone can enter. If you look at the top right sidebar, you'll see a rather blatant appeal to vote for my painting - you might have to have a Facebook page, but I'm not sure about that.
Anyhow, I was browsing through my paintings trying to decide what to enter for next month's competition, and I came across Randy's smiling face. He was part of my 100 Portraits project and was one of my favorites, because I think it was particularly well painted.
Feel free to vote, or not. : - )

=========================================

CITYSCAPE 2, 9097, abstracted city rooftops and architecture © Carol Nelson Fine Art

This is a larger version of the DSFDF photo of city roof tops. The first version I did is much smaller and is a mixed media piece - see blog entry of 10/18/2009. This one is on canvas and it simply acrylic paints and modeling compound . I've been working on this painting for about two weeks and it has undergone numerous transformations. I am finally happy with the result.

Being an abstracted version of the photo, it is all about patterns, negative space, and focal point. As you can see the complexity of the shapes increases to the right and slightly below the middle of the painting. Rotating the painting to a vertical format yields an equally interesting composition.

The colors evolved on their own. The reference photo was mostly subtle tones of blue, grey and yellow. Most of my work is not subtle in terms of palette! I love strong value contrasts so I was able to go nuts with this one.
For purchase information, please see my website.

CITYSCAPE, 9085, mixed media abstract of city architecture

At my recent Metals and Mixed Media workshop, I worked on this abstract featuring several metallic and textural elements. I didn't have time to complete it at the workshop. As a matter of fact, it was still in the "is this going to work" stage by the end of the workshop.
As is often the case with abstract work, I looked at it with new eyes the next day, and did sufficient tweaking to it that I am now happy with the result.
The inspiration for this painting came from Karin Jurick's Different Strokes from Different Folks blog. The minute I saw her latest photo posting for the challenge, I KNEW I had to do it as an abstract. Of course the composition's the thing and there are so many different compositions you could make from this awesome photo.
For purchase information, please see my website.

CITY RHYTHM 1, 03108, acrylic abstract cityscape

There's a lot going on in this painting. Acrylic modeling paste was pressed with a grid pattern. The upper right section has micaceous iron oxide added for texture. Multiple layers of acrylic paints were applied for added depth and richness.

The grid pattern reminded me of the street layout in downtown Denver. One quadrant is at a 45 degree angle, making getting anywhere a challenge. At least you always know which direction is West because you can see the mountains.

For purchase information, please see my website at:

http://data.fineartstudioonline.com/dataviewer.asp?keyvalue=3851&subkeyvalue=184448&page=WorksDetail