Sunset in the Valley

18x24" 45x60cm acrylic on hardboard

The painting of the week. Last night's improvised painting, must to have been channeling some California impressionism here. I'd painted a whole lot of green on this board the night before, and scraped most of it off, so I started this painting with the idea of carving out some sort a scene from the green. Being right handed, I usually start painting in the upper left and work my way across and down, and I was having fun with the sky, so I kept going until I had the left side painted. Originally I was going to have the road go through a grove of trees, but by that time I'd gotten into the spirit of seeing just how little I could paint and as carefree as I paint that I painted the right side of the trees sky as well, just leaving a little of the original green on the right edge, just because I could. This left my main feature, the trees more less centered, one of my big taboos, but what the heck, this was one of those paintings where you break the rules. My normally very low horizon is even lower here as well. I figured I needed a house in the distance, but had to be careful only to imply it... All in all, it worked for me last night, but was one of those paintings that you weren't sure would work for you the next day. But, yah, it does.