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Saturday 19 February 2011

The Virtual Paintout - February Challenge

I haven't been able to spend much time in front of the easel these past few weeks which is irritating when all I want to do is paint. However, I decided to skip any other chores this weekend and give this month's Virtual Paintout a try and take a trip along the roads around Romania to see if anything caught my eye. I found some great scenes in the mountainous regions of North East Romania, and this one especially appealed to me. It's a scene from a crossing, along a main road that runs right through the town of Piatra-Neam. What really caught my eye was the enormous puddle and the enigmatic reflections with the white stripes of the pedestrian crossing suspended across the whole format. Naturally, I added drama with deeper and more exciting colours, but I like the way an ordinary scene can come to life this way. It could be anywhere in the world and even though I like to somehow try and bring in the flavour of the particular city or country of the month's challenge, I just fixed on this one and had fun. This work took me four hours to complete, and there are some changes I would like to make to the composition, but I am leaving it as it is. Enough!

"After the Rain - Piatra-Neam, Romania"
Gouache on Watercolour Paper - 9" x 9"

Click
">HERE for scene painted from Google Maps with their permission.

16 comments:

Autumn Leaves said...

Anne! This is an awesome and quite exciting piece. Very strong and I love the rain soaked street and the city busy-ness that is implied.

Anne C M Campbell said...

Thanks Sherry! I can't resist reflections...windows...puddles! :-)

sarah meredith said...

What a great interpretation of the street view! The reflections are wonderful. And in gouache!! I am really impressed.

Anne C M Campbell said...

Thanks for the compliments Sarah and for stopping by!

Jean-Baptiste Pelardon said...

This one is sincerely one of the most interesting of the Virtual Paintout Romanian serie... (Well, truly sincerely, it's THE most interesting, but keep that secret ;-)

Leslie Hawes said...

A wonderful result! Street View has some gems, and it's worth the digging.
Love the colors and the way the stripes sit on the surface.

Anne C M Campbell said...

Jean-Baptiste - your compliment made my day! Thank you very much for yoru kind words. :-)

Anne C M Campbell said...

Thanks so much Leslie! It was the stripes of the pedestrian crossing that clinched this scene for me.

carringtonpbrown said...

really wonderful reflections...love it

Anne C M Campbell said...

Thanks so much Carrington!

Nicole said...

Ooh, I love this one -- you really nailed the reflections and the feeling of a rainy pavement. Four hours well spent!

Anne C M Campbell said...

Oh thanks so much Nicole! I've been over to your blog - some magnificent photographs there!

Chartan said...

Your work is always the most interesting in that Virtual Paintout. I was disappointed you didn't post the one last month. This one is a corker :D

Anne C M Campbell said...

Awww, Charlotte, thanks. The last one, "Boston Maybe", had me dithering as I felt the foliage looked like a bunch of salad leaves!!! I also lost the Google Map link which is required with submission so I think it was meant to stay at home here on my blog. ;-(

Anne C M Campbell said...

Charlotte - I also felt the cars on the right hand side looked a little like those found in illustrations for childrens' books. I'll stop now.

Anne C M Campbell said...

Thanks Mary!