Shadows at Dusk

Since January I have been working on a series of canvases based on buildings in Cumberland, Maryland. I visited that old railroad city the day after Christmas 2008 and compiled a large photographic archive of structures with my digital camera. That archive has been a source for several paintings since then.

This work, entitled "Shadows at Dusk," is based on two houses I saw on Cumberland's Greene Street. While I relied on my digital images to develop the houses, I improvised the lighting, the color palette and the dramatic sky from both memory and imagination. I used a palette dominated by cadmium orange and cerulean blue, and tried to emphasize the feeling of light at dusk as it washes over the brick facades and creates long shadows and dark recessed areas. This painting is the largest work I've completed in two years, and rests upon a canvas that I stretched myself.

"Shadows at Dusk." Oil on stretched canvas, 36 x 48 inches. Completed January 2009.