Golden Hour Russell-Lee | 12×16 | Oil on Linen Panel

Inspiration for Golden Hour Russell-Lee

I started Golden Hour Russell-Lee as a demo for a workshop. I couldn’t ever let a landscape workshop slip by without demoing two things: a shrimp boat and the golden hour. So needless to say…I painted this scene the very first day. 😀

I hadn’t planned on being inspired during the evening I snapped the reference photo. It had been a long day, and I had actually already painted the boat that morning. But as the sun sank and the colors of the Anclote River became more and more beautiful, I stopped short as I strolled along Dodecanese Boulevard. In the golden light of that late hour, the Russell-Lee looked more picturesque than ever. Its teal cabin and orange trimming harmonized  beautifully with a subtly rainbow-hued sky. The river had also quieted considerably throughout the day and now mirrored all the boats in gentle ripples. I simply had to take one more photo to use for a future painting.

Demoing a Starting Method

When I began this piece for my workshop, I specially used it to demo the “Line and Mass” block-in. This method of starting a painting resembles the “coloring book” method we learned as children: filling in lines with basic color. Obviously the major difference is that the artist makes the lines too! 😉 After a general block-in of colors and lights and darks, usually artists will start refining the painting around the focal point and move outwards. Peripheral elements can often be left looser and more “brushy” or “painterly”—sometimes no additional painting is necessary!

Interesting Tidbits about Shrimping

While doing some research about shrimping in general, I happened upon a neat little blog article. The individual who wrote the blog had the opportunity to work aboard a shrimp boat for a day. I found the narrative interesting and informative, and the blog also seems to support a good cause. However, I certainly haven’t looked through the whole website, so I don’t necessarily endorse everything there.